Haringvliet bridge renovation: a weather station for construction sites
After 60 years of wear and tear, the mobile section of the Haringvliet bridge began to reach the end of its lifespan, and thus a replacement bridge valve was needed. Such a colossal steel structure however has to be made with great skill and expertise.
Our customer Hollandia Infra, steelwork experts, collaborated with sister company Hollandia Services to realise and install this new part. In cooperation with several additional partners, they were commissioned by Rijkswaterstaat to ensure that the crucial connecting road between the Dutch provinces of Zuid-Holland, Noord-Brabant and Zeeland will be operational for decades to come.
What does such a huge Dutch project have to do with the Belgian Crodeon? We'll explain how in this blog.
Measuring wind in construction
July 3rd was the day the new bridge valve was installed in the Haringvliet bridge, which to date is also the largest bridge valve built by Hollandia Infra. However, the job proved an exciting one as there was a strong wind. Until the very last moment, it remained doubtful whether the installation of the extremely heavy bridge (2 million kg!) could proceed.
With such major projects, premature halting and thus deviating from the tight schedule is a disaster. Therefore, it was crucial to monitor those strong winds very closely to know whether the bridge installation could still go ahead. Stopping the job while wind speeds were still low enough would otherwise lead to unnecessary delays.
This is where Crodeon comes into the picture, together with Reporter and our weather sensor. After all, Hollandia Infra used our weather station to monitor the weather conditions on the bridge. The weather station was mounted on the railing of the bridge valve.
Wind speed and direction played a crucial role in determining whether the hoisting could proceed or not.
"After the smooth load-out and the prosperous transport to the Haringvliet bridge yesterday, one of the most crucial moments of the entire project followed: the hoisting of the new bridge valve. Because of the stormy weather, it remained uncertain until the very last minute whether the hoisting operation could proceed and the decision was postponed several times. On Monday morning, the wind was still quite strong but fortunately came from a favourable direction. At 10 o'clock a final GO followed after which the valve was picked up - from that point on there was no turning back. The following hours were very thrilling, all the phases were however completed in a calm and controlled manner." - Hollanda Infra LinkedIn
A mobile and autonomous weather station
Strict monitoring was required when lifting and moving heavy components to meet the very tight schedule of just 8 weeks. The reason being the Dutch legislation for hoisting that specifies at which wind speeds work can continue or should be postponed. This was monitored by the Rijkswaterstaat during this project.
As wind speeds had to be measured on the bridge itself, our client Hollandia Infra needed a mobile and autonomous weather station that provided live data in real time. A log of the data also had to be kept should inspection ask about it later.
With the Crodeon weather station, these requests were met immediately. Live data arrives directly on the Crodeon Dashboard and is automatically logged for you. This historical data can be downloaded as an Excel export to look back on at a later date.
A reliable construction partner
To keep an eye on the weather conditions, the Crodeon weather station's wind measurements were closely monitored by a colleague via the Crodeon Dashboard (our cloud platform).
"Before hoisting out the old and hoisting in the new valve section of the bridge, the weather station was mounted on the railing of the bridge valve. This allowed us to accurately read the wind speed and wind direction.
For hoisting installations that catch a lot of wind, you are required by law to stop operating during high wind speeds. Of course, this is also in the interest of everyone's safety. The bridge valve and the floating cranes obviously catch a lot of wind, so we had to handle them very carefully.
Our experience with Reporter has been positive, the Dashboard is clear and straightforward. Even with multiple accounts, the system is very easy to use. Reporter was easy to install and get online."
- Devin Tukker, Hollandia Infra
We are proud that Reporter could be a reliable construction partner for Devin and his colleagues during the execution of this wonderful project!
Are you looking for a weather station that's a real brick?
If you're still looking for a weather station for your Smart Construction project, don't hesitate to contact us. We'll gladly help you make your project smarter.
Credits
Many thanks to Devin Tukker of Hollandia Infra for making this blog possible.
Photos used in this blog are from Hollandia Infra and Rijkswaterstaat.
Be sure to check out what Rijkswaterstaat says about the renovation of the Haringvliet bridge and be sure to check out this blog by Hollandia about the hoisting of the bridge valve.
