Dear Reader,
This blog post is a follow up on my post all the way back in september 2022. If you would like more insight into how i got in this position you read it here. I also post a bunch about splinterlands please follow me if you are interested!
Sometimes the wrong train takes you to the right destination
For starters let me properly Introduce myself this time. My name is Hugo and I am 23 year old Civil engineering student in The Netherlands, after completing my minor in sweden last year I felt inspired to do a bit more than just study. So i got a job. The job is in workpreperation for underground rail infrastructure. This involves everything from cables to the plumbing required to keep the trains in the Netherlands going across the tracks.
After starting in March 2022 I ended up getting a position in what I can only describe as a massive construction project. In the period of 2023 to 2025 we will be rebuilding the entire emplacement of The Hague central station. This includes the demolition and rebuilding of 12 tracks and everything that comes with them,1,5m below the tracks including soil (cables and soil and stuff is where I come in). But there is a catch.
Even if you're on the right track, You'll get run over if you just sit there.
The Client which is the rail network owner of the Netherlands Prorail wants the station to remain operational while the reconstruction is happening. This caused the construction to be split up into 5 major building steps where 2 tracks are taken out of service (C100,C200 etc..) replacing 2 tracks at a time. Except for the last building step where we do 4 of them. This is where the true challenge comes in. The Hague central station is part of the first railroadtrack that existed in The Netherlands called "de oude lijn" which means "the old line". The last time the train infrastructure was remodeled here was more than 40 years ago, with some tiny exeptions. This results in the fact that the available data of the amount and types of cables that are present is lacking to say the least. I did an analysis and it showed that only 34,5% of cable gutters had known contents. These unknowns will result in an extreme challenge during contruction When we remove cables we will sometimes npt knwo where they go and what they are connected to possibly resulting in outages. This was known already before IO got involved in the project but it makes the process very fun because it is complicated to solve in practice. I have been able to provide some solution and have been carefully planning out the work. I came to the conclusion that all of the work we do had to be done before the tracks were to be demolished making sure all cables to support the still operational systems are already in place. This will require extra costs as there always have to be people there while building making sure cables are not damaged. I am having a lot of fun and the colleagues of other disciplines who seemed very intimidating at first in september ended up being very friendly and fond of me. Back in September I was pretty intimidated by the size of this project and I am still doubting whether I can do it or not. That is why I made an agreement with my superior that he would start helping me when things got to much for me and I am very grateful for that.
Driving the train doesn't set its course. The real job is laying the track.
This christmas the project hit a milestone where the Definitive designs of the work were finally ready. In June of 2023 construction will begin up until the end of 2025.
I feel extremely blessed to be apart of a project of this magnitude. I put some fun railroad quotes that resonated with me in between the paragraphs to break up the text a little I hope you all dont mind :)
Here is a link of the Clients website about this project if anyone is interested, project.
Hopefully I can update you all again soon if there is interest and consider following,
Kind regards,
Hugo