The bright orange jackets of the workers from the Nieuw Zuid Construction Consortium (Boskalis, Mobilis and Van Gelder) stand out against the grey autumn air. Construction manager Sjaak van den Hoek guides us round the construction site that stretches from the existing station entrance, the Minervapassage, all the way to the future Brittenpassage, just 25 m wide and wedged between the railway track and the subject of our visit: the metro platforms under construction. In the rain, we carefully make our way between construction workers, stored materials and trucks driving around. ‘Doing construction work here really calls for some nifty manoeuvring.’
Modern look and feel
But the benefits will soon be worth the effort. As we look from the construction site towards the new railway platforms, we can see what awaits us. Brand-new, 6 m high platform roofs made of aluminium composite that span the entire platform; robust, transparent enclosures made of glass and steel; and transparent platform tiles made of walk-on glass that allow daylight into the passageway below. Van den Hoek: ‘The railway platforms are just a little bit longer, reaching across the Brittenpassage. The metro platforms don’t reach that far. To allow extra daylight into the passageway, we’ll be using a skylight, like a turtle made of glass and steel.’
Precision lifting
We look towards the other side of the construction site, where we can see a hedge of steel tubes protruding from the ground, poured full of concrete and neatly lined up. ‘Those are the foundation piles that the platform support beams will rest across’, says Van den Hoek. ‘Lifting those support beams into position, right next to the passing trains on the adjacent track, is quite a risky business. But we’ve come up with solutions for that.’
Steel pin
‘Can you see that steel pin protruding from the top of the piles?’, asks Van den Hoek. ‘We start by lowering one end of a support beam onto it, parallel to the adjacent railway track. We then rotate the beam 90° in the air. This forms a hinge across the pin, preventing the support beam from pivoting towards the railway track. Only then can we lower the support beam onto the foundation pile opposite.’
Electric lifting
With the foundation piles now in place, the focus in the weeks ahead will be on lifting – done by a bright green electric crane that can hoist as much a 16 tonnes into the air each time. When we visit, some seven of the total of 23 support beams are already in place. After that, the upright sheets of concrete on the edges of the platform, the ‘side beams’, will follow. These will soon prevent passengers from seeing what we can hear during our visit: unlike the railway platforms, the platforms will not rest on a pile of sand, but will ‘float’ on the foundation piles mentioned earlier.
Floating platform
‘That kind of platform is relatively quick to build using platform elements’, explains Van den Hoek. ‘And because all of the weight is supported by piles, the platform always stays in place.’ This is important because we are building on an embankment where there may be occasional subsidence. Van den Hoek: ‘Unlike trains, metros don’t have extendable steps to bridge the gap between the platform and floor of the metro. That’s why metros stop right next to the platform. The floor of the metro and the platform are also almost exactly the same height in order to prevent people tripping when getting on and off – including disabled passengers. And we want to keep it that way. This is why we’ve opted for an especially sturdy foundation structure for the metro platforms’.
Safety systems
One advantage of this kind of floating platform is that there is enough room underneath it for all of the safety and information systems, such as electric cables and a network connection for the cameras and signage on the platform. By checking everything out in advance and installing cable ducting, we can know for sure that there will always be an opening available for every cable after the platform floor has been put in place.
Concrete work
On top of the foundations, will be the support beams mentioned earlier, and the concrete sheets that make up the platform will be on top of that. Van den Hoek: ‘We’ll start by laying the sheets in the centre of the platform, leaving us some space to work on the sides. We’ll then pour a layer of concrete with a waterproof wrap on top of it. On top of that, there’ll be sand, on which we’ll lay the platform tiles. At the same time, we’ll also sort out such things as the gutter for water drainage. The concrete work should then be completed by around November this year.’
Brief disruption to come
Until then, the works will not have any impact on metro services; Van den Hoek and his team are doing all the work from a narrow section between the tracks. But starting in mid-November, we will be working our way up from the platform floor, putting in place the stairway enclosures, the columns for the platform roofs and the roofs themselves. To do that, we will need to occasionally close a track, as in the weekend of 15 and 16 November, when we will be working on the sides of the platform and one of the enclosures.
North/South metro line
As we wipe our boots at the gateway into the site, Van den Hoek looks back and points at the construction site: ‘The site that we just walked across will be where the new tracks of the North/South metro line will be from mid-2026 – they currently run from the RAI in the east to the station and no further. After that, we’ll test everything to make sure that the platforms are completely ready for the opening of the new Brittenpassage in 2027 at the latest.’
‘Flipping over’
In order to widen and raise the height of the existing station entrance, Minervapassage, the metro platforms on the east side of the station have recently had some major work done to them. From 2027, as soon as the Brittenpassage has opened, we will continue work refurbishing the Minervapassage. The station entrance will then move 200 m to the west to the Brittenpassage next to Parnassusweg. The metro platforms will also move, flipping over, as it were, to the other side of Minervapassage to their permanent position between the two passageways.
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