News from The Netherlands

After a delay of almost 2 years, contractor Mourik has started protecting the horizontal steel supports of the entrances to the Benelux tunnel (200,000 cars a day on average). The reason for this renovation was that our competitor’s applied fire-resistant spray was detaching from the of the horizontal steel supports. The horizontal steel supports are in place to support the walls at the tunnel entrances. The fireproofing requirements are to protect the supports from exposure to the HC curve for 120 minutes. The maximum temperature on the supports was not allowed to exceed 100°C, including a cooling period.

One of the implementation requirements was that only one support should remain unprotected during renovation. There are 124 supports in total, so we looked together with the contractor for a smart way to protect the supports with a speedy installation time and the ability to work on several supports at the same time.

After an internal evaluation, regional tunnel manager Frank Van der Wal decided to propose Microtherm Overstitched 3x10mm combined with a Dalfratherm blanket. As underpinning, we conducted a successful test at Warrington Tisselt (ex-Promat Fire Lab) and thereby convinced Rijkswaterstaat. The cooperation and support from Etex Industry & Microtherm was great. To work on more than one support at a time and reduce application time, the contractor used 4 suspended work platforms. The work platforms are protected with PROMATECT®-H boards so that the unprotected supports are protected by the work platform during the renovation works. During the works, the tunnel is open to traffic which is a huge advantage for the owner and, of course, road users around Rotterdam.