The Environmental Engineering business unit of the Berghof Group of companies has received a positive assessment for its handling of engineering services for an expert’s report on foundation soil as regards inherited contamination burdens (weapons). (e)

It is standard practice in its supplier management for DB AG to judge and assess all suppliers with the objective of continuously guaranteeing and improving the quality of suppliers and services for DB AG and ultimately for its customers.

This measure serves to estimate the performance of the supplier and identify risks which DB AG must anticipate when commissioning the supplier. DB AG performs the supplier assessment with reference to a specific product and in the case of Berghof it encompassed the company's quality capacity (module 1) according to the following criteria:

• -Quality Management system
• -Process from the query through to delivery
• -Product and product testing
• -Demands on the personnel
• -Fulfillment of specific responsibilities

-In module 1, covering the quality levels Q1 to Q3, the result is classified at levels ranging from "suitable" and "suitable within limits" to "not suitable".

In this process the Environmental Engineering business unit of the Berghof group of companies achieved 195 of a possible 198 points at the Q1 assessment level (level of compliance 98.48%) - an outstanding assessment - for an expert's report it had prepared on foundation soil regarding inherited contamination burdens (weapons).

"This positive supplier assessment by Deutsche Bahn AG is further proof that Berghof Umweltengineering sets standards as a provider of high quality" Rainer Söhlmann, Head of the Berghof Analytik + Umweltengineering GmbH & Co. KG business unit at the Tübingen location, explains.

The investigation of weapons is based on the evaluation of historical aerial photographs. A reliable evaluation of aerial photos of the impact of war, (bomb craters, unexploded bonds, damaged buildings, deposits etc.), demands extensive competences in the interpretation of topographies and grayscale values. When implementing this measure the Environmental Engineering business unit can fall back on many years' experience in the investigation of weapons. Since the beginning of Nineties many multi-temporal evaluations of aerial photos of individual locations have been carried out (primarily for military properties) including extensive weapons investigations covering entire districts of large cities.

The customers receive high-resolution maps representing a valuable basis in the continued planning process for building work and risk assessments.