First roof section for extra station tunnel in place

It was an exciting weekend in Zuidas, but it all turned out fine in the end. The first roof section for the extra tunnel at Amsterdam Zuid station is in place.

Those who clicked on one of the three webcams on Saturday morning were probably shocked. In the preceding hours, the giant concrete slab that lay along the Arnold Schönberglaan should have been brought to its final destination. But it was still in the same place as the days before. Various small delays showed how complex it is to perform this huge task in a stamp-sized field. A slight delay in one part meant that the next machine or the next truck also had to wait.

8 to 10 meters per hour
But after that it went fast, considerably faster than expected. Instead of 7 meters per hour, the deck slid at 8 to 10 meters per hour. Thanks to this acceleration, valuable time could be made up. And at 2 minutes to 12 on Saturday morning, the first roof section of the new tunnel - 'de Brittenpassage' - was in place, right under railway tracks 2 and 3. 

Rebuilding
After the roof had arrived at its place, it was crowded with sand trucks. The rebuilding of the tracks and the platforms was started, in order to use them again on Sunday morning. We did not make it before the planned deadline at 6 am, it was 10 am - apologies to the travelers who arrived on the platforms in vain.

Successful
The A10 was rebuilt layer by layer the rest of Sunday. Eventually all pawns were removed at 3.30 pm. That was 1.5 hours earlier than planned. The normal train timetable was resumed on schedule on Monday morning. Operation successful.

By: Zuidas.nl. View the photos of Marcel Steinbach here.