Case_Study_Rotterdam_Delftseplein_POLYGON_LR[1]

Construction
Drying
Major renovation project
in Rotterdam to be
completed on time
thanks to Polygon
Property Damage
Restoration
Temporary
Humidity Control
Property Damage
Prevention
There are no obvious signs of
recession in the centre of Rotterdam;
wherever you look there are busy
construction sites. One of these
is next to Central Station and the
famous NN (Nationale Nederlanden)
Tower, the location of the mail
sorting centre on the Delftseplein.
For many years and from all parts
of the world mail has arrived here to
be distributed among the inhabitants
of Rotterdam and the surrounding
municipalities. Now as we approach
the end of 2009 we are witnessing
the creation of a modern, prestigious
70 metre high building complex
named ‘Central Post’ which will
house offices, shops and restaurants.
The renovation activities were started
in 2006 by construction company Dura
Vermeer for developer LSI and real estate
company Fortress. Danny Blankespoor
is the general foreman on the renovation
project. He explains this massive
undertaking, “There will be an extra six
floors added to the building making a
total of 13. Plus there will be two more
levels of parking with 320 spaces.”
The saying ‘time is money’ is never more
true than in the construction industry.
The faster the construction activities
are completed, the better. And there
are heavy penalties for projects that
are not completed on time. In order
to work during the cold and wet winter
months, Dura Vermeer needed Polygon’s
specialised skills in humidity and climate
control. Blankespoor says, “I hadn’t
worked with them before but my
colleague Aart de Boer advised me
to call Polygon as they were the experts.
Because of the low temperature and the
high humidity it was necessary to use
heating equipment to dry the building.
If the humidity is not at the right level,
the painting, stucco and other decorative
treatments can’t be carried out.”
John Zirkzee, Polygon’s humidity
specialist from the Temporary Humidity
Control division was the contact person
on site. He was faced with a challenging
application; not particularly because of
the complexity, but more because of
the height of the building. Normally the
heaters are placed on the ground floor
outside the building, but Dura Vermeer
had multiple floors that needed to be
dried and limited access at ground level.
In normal situations the heated air is
blown into buildings through large flexible
pipes. But because of concerns over
heat loss coupled with the lack of space,
it was decided to place the heating units
inside the building. The advantage of this
approach is that as the space is heated
the warm air is reused which speeds up
the heating process. Another advantage
is that it makes major savings on the
cost of fuel. On the ground floor there
is an extra large fuel tank containing
11,500 litres of fuel which supplies all
five heaters. The fuel is then pumped up
to a height of approximately 60 metres.
Blankespoor concludes, “Working with
Polygon has been great. The specialists
worked really well with us to ensure that
there were no pipes on the floors. If there
was a problem, they were on site really
quickly, so there was no need for us to
worry about the drying process, we could
just concentrate on our own work. Thanks
to the input of Polygon our project is right
on track. And that of course is the most
important thing.”
www.polygongroup.com