Railway platform roofs now in place at Zuid station

Earlier this year, we fitted the roof for the railway platform for tracks 3 and 4. This time, it was the most southerly railway platform between tracks 1 and 2, above the new Brittenpassage. Again, the sections arrived at Amsterdam Zuid station in a ‘convoi exceptionnel’ from Buiting steel plant in Almelo. Over the course of a weekend, a total of 19 roof sections, measuring 16.5 x 7 m, were hoisted into position using a huge crane on the A10 Zuid.

The workers from the Nieuw-Zuid construction consortium (Mobilis, Boskalis and Van Gelder) lifted the monsters one by one from the A10 Zuid into position, over the most southerly railway track at Amsterdam Zuid station. Dozens of builders were standing by to fit the roof sections in place. While they were working, the next truck arrived with a new section – and so it continued.

Watch and listen to the explanation by Zuidasdok architect Marianne van Lochem. (With thanks to Vervoerregio Amsterdam.)

Unfortunately, not everyone was able to see a 13,000 kg platform roof floating through the air. Scheduling an operation of this kind is complex and there will always be last-minute changes – ten minutes earlier here, five minutes later there. But the good news is that this did not dent the enthusiasm.

Because of the works, we closed the A10 Zuid in the direction of the A1 Hengelo and A2 Utrecht for a weekend. On tracks 1 and 2, there were also no trains running to and from Amsterdam Zuid station. This was a source of some pressure, because it was also the weekend of the Amsterdam Marathon – an event that itself attracted 60,000 people to the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam Zuid. Thanks to good coordination with the marathon organisers, disruption on access roads was limited to less than 30 minutes, occasionally reaching 40 minutes as a result of an accident. At 05.00 on Monday morning, the A10 Zuid was reopened again and all of the trains resumed their normal timetable.

We also took advantage of the (partial) closure of the track and the A10 Zuid to do some work on the De Nieuwe Meer junction. We did the preparations for the weekend of Friday, 7 November (during a closure of the A10 West in the direction of A10 Zuid) when we will be fitting two bearer beams on the foundations for the new flyover.