The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link Project is the final stage in the realisation of a straight traffic corridor between Scandinavia and continental Europe. It will be an immersed tunnel containing two dual carriageways and a twin-track railway traversing the 19 km distance across the Fehmarnbelt (*transportation infrastructure) between Rødbyhavn on the island of Lolland in Denmark and Puttgarden on the island of Fehmarn in northern Germany. The Tunnel Electrical and Mechanical ('TEM') contract covers the mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, control and automation (MEICA) systems for the tunnel. The purpose of the MEICA systems is to enable Femern A/S to efficiently control the operation, maintenance, safety and security of the tunnel through an integrated set of systems. Femern A/S requires MEICA systems that deliver a high level of reliability, availability, maintainability and safety.
The TEM contractor will be required to design, install and complete the tunnel MEICA systems (*design and build electrical and mechanical contract) and provide reliability-centred maintenance (*maintenance) for the tunnel MEICA systems for a period envisaged to be 3 years (coinciding with the defects notification period in the TEM contract). In addition, the TEM contractor will be required to provide IT services for a period of up to 10 years after hand over.
The MEICA systems shall provide a safe travel environment, monitor the tunnel and respond to incidents in accordance with the road and rail safety strategies for the tunnel. The systems shall be integrated through the control system to provide coordinated control and response of the individual systems.
The mechanical systems include:
• ventilation (jet fans in the road and rail tubes and pressurisation for the central gallery)
• drainage
• cooling to the basements of the special elements
• emergency doors in the road and rail tubes
• fire-fighting and suppression systems
• cabinets for emergency stations and fire hydrants
• cable ways in the gallery
• building services.
The electrical systems include:
• LV and MV electricity distribution
• uninterrupted power supply systems
• lighting to the road tubes (including light attenuation screens at entrances and exits), gallery, portal building and special elements
• aesthetic lighting system in the road tubes
• emergency lighting in the road and rail tubes.
The instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) systems include:
• monitoring systems (CCTV, automated incident detection, air quality monitoring, fire detection, weather stations and access control)
• Central control systems (it platform, tunnel control logic, human machine interface, road traffic management, data network, link control room arrangement and integrations) (*control system)
• communication systems (public address system, distributed antennae systems for TETRA, GSM-R, GSM, FM and DAB transmissions, FM/DAB break-in functions and phones in roadside emergency stations).
The TEM contract is large scale and complex. It requires the contractor to manage design, planning, procurement, programming, installation, testing, integration into a centralised control system and testing, commissioning and handover of a large number of individual systems (as stated above) covering multiple disciplines and supply chains (*multi-disciplinary works).
The contract requires the contractor to install, test and commission the systems in the tunnel. The tunnel is constructed by the civil works contractors placing pre-cast concrete tunnel elements in sequence from both the portals at Rødbyhavn and Puttgarden. The elements comprise 10 “special elements” located at approximately 1.8km intervals and 79 “standard elements”. The special elements provide plant rooms below road and rail level. The MEICA systems are arranged as repeating 1.8km lengths (covering approximately 900m each side of a special element) for design, installation, testing and commissioning. Execution of the contract requires work across a very long geographical area in a number of locations at the same time and transport of materials, people and equipment over a long duration contract (*logistics). The repeating lengths allow for incremental testing and continuous improvement.
The contract requires configuration of a central control system covering a large complex infrastructure asset to allow the tunnel to be managed in all operational scenarios. The delivery of the control system requires a strong process driven approach focusing on system performance and human machine interaction.
The TEM contractor is expected to carry out the works with full focus on safety (*safety) and in observation of principles set out in terms of ethical, social and environmental behaviour (e.g. UNGC global compact, labour related obligations, use of apprentices) (*compliance with CSR requirements).