Just north of Gothenburg’s central station, things are reaching fever pitch. This is where the Station Centralen phase is happening, part of the West Link’s double-track railway for commuter and regional trains under central Gothenburg. On behalf of the Swedish Transport Administration, NCC is responsible for building an underground station called Station Centralen. Dotted around the vast concrete shell there are 35 yellow Celsicom Easy Connect boxes constantly transmitting valuable data from concrete slabs, outside and inside walls, and roofs.
KEEPING TRACK OF COOLING AND THE STATUS OF THE CONCRETE
Celsicom Easy Connect enables effective and reliable remote measurement. So say Staffan Johansson and Ida Alexandersson, site supervisor and deputy site supervisor respectively at NCC, as we stand and look down on the concrete shell that will accommodate the 700 metre long and 50 metre wide new train station underground. Below us, 1,700 cubic metres of concrete are being poured to create a concrete slab measuring 940 square metres. One yellow box checks that the water intended to cool the concrete to prevent cracking stays at the right temperature. Two other boxes record the temperature changes in the concrete during the hardening process, with two sensing wires each embedded in the concrete. NCC has been using Celsicom Easy Connect for a few months. “Everything is working brilliantly. There are no disruptions at all, and the boxes log in every ten minutes, providing us with a very reliably strength curve,” says Ida.
“THE BOXES WERE UP AND RUNNING STRAIGHT AWAY”
The measurement system was easy to use from the word go, she thinks. “We could start using them straight away, the day we got them. All we had to do was remove a small label to connect to our existing login (in Celsiview) – and start measuring immediately. It all went incredibly smoothly, no problems at all.” Staffan agrees. According to him, the yellow boxes have made the work much easier. “We know exactly what temperature it is in the concrete. All this up-to-date information can be accessed from a computer or mobile at any time. For example, we can access the system and immediately confirm: OK, now the strength is right for the structure – let’s take down the formwork.”
RELIABLE CONCRETING UNTIL 2024
For NCC, Celsicom Easy Connect improves confidence as work proceeds on the underground station, the train tunnel and the other parts of the Station Centralen phase. “I think the most important thing is that it’s easy to check if there’s been an outage. These days we’re spending more time inside than out. So it feels good to be able to look and make sure all the measuring points are working,” says Staffan Johansson. Ida Alexandersson adds: “It’s easier to check if something has happened. If a sensing wires has been pulled out, you can see exactly when.” The 35 existing boxes will be working for four years, until the NCC thinks concreting will finish for this phase of the West Link. “Whether those 15 boxes will end up being enough is different matter. We might have to pour twice as much for a few weeks to stay on schedule, in which case we’ll buy more yellow boxes,” confirms Staffan Johansson.
