Efectis assists contractor VIA NoordZuidlijn (a combination of Visser en Smit Bouw and Imtech Building Services) in the field of fire resistance and fire safety in the North/South line project. The North/South metro line is a new metro line in Amsterdam that will run 9.7 kilometres (from Buikslotermeer in the north of the city to Amsterdam Zuid station in the south). The opening is planned in 2017.

The North/South line runs below the historic city centre of Amsterdam, by a twin bored tunnel and an immersed tunnel. In the line, five underground station are located. Last month the highlights and learning points from the followed approach were presented at an international safety conference.

The road to success in the project can be characterised with the keywords “cooperation” and “transparency”. The main challenges were the handling of changing requirements during the process and the design and application of fire resistance in the finishing phase.

These challenges were handled by setting up a multidisciplinary team of fire safety and structural engineers from client and contractor working together. Innovative techniques were applied throughout the process. This includes on-site fire tests on the concrete structure of stations and tunnel, to assess the spalling behaviour and modelling techniques to determine the required amount of fire protection.