PFAS contamination halts Bern university campus construction

Construction of the new Bern University of Applied Sciences campus has been halted since the end of 2025 after PFAS chemicals were found in the soil, SRF reports. Work cannot resume until a remediation plan is completed.

The campus is being built in Ausserholligen, in the west of Bern. Around 7,000 students and lecturers are expected to use the buildings, which will house the university’s departments of health, social work and business, as well as part of its School of the Arts.

Eugen Wagner, the canton of Bern’s overall project manager, described the forced pause as highly demotivating. He and a team of around 50 people are responsible for the construction project. Their work is currently focused less on technical construction issues and more on legal matters, including building-rights agreements and liability questions.

The PFAS entered the ground after a tyre warehouse caught fire in 1999. The chemicals were carried into the soil by firefighting foam. The Swiss Federal Railways, which owns the land, is now preparing a remediation plan. The costs will be shared between the Swiss Federal Railways, the federal government, the canton and possibly the city of Bern.

The delay will increase the cost of the campus. The project is currently estimated at around 450 million francs, compared with the approximately 350 million francs approved by the Bern cantonal parliament in autumn 2022. Wagner said that changing the construction process always creates additional costs.

PFAS contamination has also delayed or halted other construction projects in Switzerland. The municipality of Cham in the canton of Zug put a 34 million franc project for a new music school centre on hold in March 2026. The expansion of the Altstätten regional prison in the canton of St Gallen was also delayed after PFAS were found on land formerly used for fire drills.

Christina Schaffner, director of the Bauenschweiz construction industry association, said dealing with PFAS was a challenge because binding limits and an agreed measurement method were still lacking. She said possible PFAS remediation should be incorporated into construction projects at an early stage.

Residents living next to the Bern construction site are also having to wait. One mother said she and her teenage daughter could see the site from their balcony. She is nevertheless looking forward to the planned campus, because a park is due to be built in front of their home.