Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lars Appel

Vice-Dean Faculty of Media

Manager of the Institute of Civil Engineering (IfB)

Manager of Road Construction Lab

Professorship of Traffic Engineering

Professorship of Construction Management

• Traffic planning
• Public Transportation (ÖPNV)
• Demand-controlled systems of public transportation
• Road construction
• Road planning
• Road maintenance
• Road construction lab
• Construction operation planning

An application-oriented teaching with high relation to building practice inside construction companies is for me paramount/my priority. Students need to be prepared for their future professional life. Therefore, focus is given to those topics that are required in practice. Through many years of professional experience and corresponding contacts in the construction industry, recent topics and developments are implemented in my teaching practice.

Basics of transportation:

The aim of this module is to teach basics of traffic planning. You will receive an overview of basic questions on traffic planning such as e.g. methods of traffic census, modes of transportation models or traffic reallocation processes. The goal is the preparation for further topics in the transportation sector. Furthermore, I explain aspects of traffic engineering; for example the question of how traffic flows can be controlled at junctions with or without traffic lights. Overall, it is a basic module in transportation science. Before you plan or build roads, before you determine the dimension of local public transportation, you need to know how many vehicles and persons use the corresponding traffic system. Only this way can demand-driven planning be ensured!

Sustainable planning and mobility:

This module provides an initial overview of the requirements for environmentally friendly transportation behaviour.  Next to spatial planning aspects (e.g. sustainable settlement planning), students receive an overview of the local public transportation planning. Here we will deal with demand-driven traffic systems, especially for rural regions.

Road sector:

In this module, the focus is on road infrastructure. Road construction (building materials, process engineering, construction, etc.), road planning guidelines as well as questions relating to foundation engineering are dealt with in detail. This module not only includes asphalt but also concrete construction.

Structural maintenance of roads:

In times of diminishing resources and against the background of the fact that areas for new infrastructure are not endlessly available, the maintenance of existing infrastructure is coming to the fore of public interest. Due to this reason, future traffic engineers receive an overview of the planning, management and construction processes of road maintenance in this module. Both concrete and asphalt roads are dealt with.

Road construction lab (teaching and research lab):

Students majoring in ‘traffic and infrastructure’ pass through a practice-oriented laboratory internship as part of the module ‘Road Construction Practice and Road Construction Lab’. Within the scope of this lab internship, students carry out suitability tests on bitumen and asphalt. Students from the Institute of Civil Engineering can access our the state-of-the-art lab. The lab internship attaches great importance to students working independently with test devices. We have manual and modern electronic test devices for every suitability test to prepare students for all sorts of challenges in the future working practice.

The road construction lab is currently under construction.

Construction Management:

Construction management provides an overview of all economic aspects of civil engineering. Against the background of the most economically possible processing of construction projects, the most significant construction methods are explained. Additionally, all contractual and calculative aspects are explained and students receive an overview of all instruments of cost, quality and deadline management. Also, questions of construction supervision are addressed. This is a practice-oriented module in which students acquire knowledge that they will need every day in their future professional careers. 

BauIng-Project:

Within the framework of the BauIng-project, students plan a fictitious construction project including all project phases. The goal is to underpin and illustrate the theoretical knowledge from the lectures with a concrete practical example. Additionally, we offer keynote speeches from construction experts and excursions to interesting construction sites.