Fire-safe living in The Salmon Harbor

To ensure optimum fire safety in De Zalmhaven, ULC Installatietechniek is installing a sprinkler system in the 215-meter-high Zalmhaven Tower. This sprinkler system will be installed in the apartments in the highrise and in the four-story parking garage. In addition, the Utrecht-based total installation company is realizing a dry and wet extinguishing system. The work was commissioned by BAM Bouw en Techniek - Grote Projecten and was based on Peutz's Fire Safety Master Plan.

"We started installing our fire-extinguishing lines right at the start of construction," says Richard de Kuijer, project manager at ULC Installatietechniek. "For the lower floors, we chose dry fire lines, to which the fire department can immediately connect its water supply in case of fire. From a height of 70 meters, a wet extinguishing system with three pumps was installed." The fire-extinguishing pipes were installed in the shaft and built up with the residential tower, he says. "As early as the second day of each construction cycle, our installers came in. Thanks to this approach, we remained up to a maximum of 20 meters below the highest level of the tower, which meant that our installation was available to the fire department even in the event of any emergencies during the shell construction."

The water for both the wet extinguishing system and sprinkler system is drawn from a clean water basin of approximately 300 m3. "The sprinkler system ensures that unexpected fire cannot develop in the higrise and in most cases is extinguished automatically," De Kuijer explains. "Moreover, thanks to our installation, the building structure is not exposed to high thermal loads. Combined with a limitation of smoke development, this ensures safe escape routes." The plastic pipes for the wet sprinkler systems are already embedded in the floors, he says. "In order to ensure high delivery quality, detailed photos were taken of all installations and extortion reports were prepared."

Because of frost hazards, the 4-story parking garage is equipped with a dry sprinkler system. Both the sprinkler system and wet sprinkler system are equipped with multi stage (multi-stage) pumps, which bridge pressure differences in the system. After lowering the hoist shed, ULC Installatietechniek will also realize the sprinkler system in the Park Office. To ensure a fast and flawless installation, all installations were worked out in advance and clashed in BIM.