Six hundred tons of steel for Ede-Wageningen station

Ede-Wageningen Station (EdesPoort) is being renovated. The existing platforms were widened, a new platform roof was built and a new station building with bicycle storage came into being. Buiting Staalbouw supplied and placed the steel structures for the platform covers, the floors, the station building and the striking clock tower. The new station will be completed by the end of 2024. "The installation of the canopy required a huge logistical action," says Buiting.

Buiting Staalbouw worked for about a year and a half on the project, which will have a unique landmark with the tower at the main entrance to the station. In total, some 600 tons of steel will be used, explains director Louis Buiting of Buiting Staalbouw. "The station canopy consists of triangular columns composed of plate, to which heavy consoles are welded on which the canopy parts lie. Main contractor Van Wijnen asked us to assemble these 23 wooden canopies, which weigh about sixty tons each. In addition, we installed a 35-meter-high bell tower."

Decommissioning

To limit inconvenience to passengers, some of the heavy work was performed during four weekends when train traffic was shut down. Some ten to fifteen mechanics worked day and night during those out-of-service periods in shifts. Because the roofing parts have an enormous weight, a heavy crawler crane was used, which could lift eighty tons at one hundred meters. Buiting: "That required a huge logistical operation. Because the entire canopy had to be assembled in one weekend, everything was ready pre-assembled. During the crane transport, the adjacent road was closed. Thanks in part to the steel auxiliary construction, the hoods were stable and dimensionally stable and we were able to put them away without any problems. It was a more than serious challenge, but the cooperation with the other parties went perfectly. We had a very pleasant cooperation with both the client and the crane company. As a result, the out-of-service work went well and we were always ready on time."

Ensuring stability with auxiliary steel

Buiting Staalbouw regularly works for ProRail. For example, the company was previously involved in the new construction of stations in Utrecht and Zwolle. In doing so, the company gained a lot of experience with complex steel constructions. Still, every project is different. "The tricky thing about this station roof was that the stability is only in the center columns. Of these, six are moment fixed clamped to the foundation, the remaining center column and the fourteen side columns are all pendulum columns. To ensure stability and dimensional stability in the construction phase, we added one hundred tons of auxiliary steel."