Trüllikon dry stone wall
Realized:
2022
performed by:
Naturnetz Nordostschweiz
dry stone wall Rebberg Trüllikon
"The technique of building walls and fences from stones without connecting mortar is an ancient craft that has been proven over centuries" (see dry stone walls, basics, building instructions, meaning, SUS)
These or similar words were the beginning of one of Naturnetz Nordostschweiz's most exciting projects in 2022. After a long planning period and a lengthy approval process, the dry stone wall in a vineyard near Trüllikon in the Zurich wine country could finally be built. The situation presented us with some logistical challenges due to space constraints. Since the wall was to be placed on an important road connection and passage had to be guaranteed at all times, we could not simply close the road during the 4-week construction phase and deposit the required material on the road. All in all, it was a lot of material. We used a total of over 20 tons of Jurassic limestone bricks, about the same amount of limestone rubble for the back walling and around 20 cubic meters of gravel for the foundation and path repairs. The community service workers had to select the stones in the quarry in Dielsdorf beforehand, stack them on pallets by hand and fix them in place. The pallets were then delivered to Trüllikon by truck and unloaded on a nearby farm using a wheel loader and deposited there. From there, we were able to transport the materials to the construction site one by one, depending on the progress of the construction. After excavating the work area, completing the gravel foundation and creating a string frame to help with orientation when laying the bricks, the actual bricklaying work could begin. While the foundation stones were being laid and of course during the entire construction period, the community service workers were explained building rules, taught work techniques, informed about work safety, pointed out how to keep things in order during construction work... and of course they worked together on a great project with a lot of fun and sweat. A special change for the community service workers was undoubtedly the visit of the intern team from all Naturnetz branches as part of their intern training. They were also introduced to the basics of dry stone wall construction and worked on the wall with great enthusiasm. After a while, both civil servants and interns knew immediately what was meant when technical terms such as inclination (wall inclination), bed-butt joint (horizontal and vertical wall joints), binder (brick which has to be embedded in the back wall at least once per m2 of wall surface to stabilize the wall), face (selected front side of a brick), cross joint (brickwork error, occurs when bricks are placed with too little offset above the butt joint), changer (higher brick which interrupts a bed joint), setter (chisel tool with hard metal insert for stone processing) or sledgehammer (impact tool, weight between 800g and 1500g) were used.
The project was made possible by Birdlife Zurich as part of species conservation projects, particularly to promote rare bird species, especially the Widehope.