Longville provide cool solution to Euro Tunnel

Longville, the leading specialist rental provider of power, pumping and climate control systems, recently secured a contract to supply air conditioning to contractors building the Euro Tunnel

Longville, the leading specialist rental provider of power, pumping and climate control systems, recently secured a contract to supply air conditioning to the contractors building the second stage of the Euro Tunnel.

Longville, who provide temporary power, air conditioning, heating solutions to some of the most critical support projects from 45 depots across the UK and worldwide, secured the project to supply air conditioning and chilled water on an on-going basis to the construction site.

This world renowned show case construction project is one of the latter stages in the development of the rail link between Brussels and London which includes the Channel Tunnel, and will ultimately see passengers able to commute directly from the new station all the way to Brussels in only a few hours.

With the health and safety of the workers of paramount importance, the contractors were finding it increasingly difficult to provide a comfortable working environment in the limited space available at the leading edge of the excavation site.

With the combination of an unseasonably hot and long summer, a large number of workers and the sheer volume of construction and support equipment working closely together, temperatures in the tunnel were beginning to reach 38C.

At this stage of the construction process, many of the machines are engaged in the process of boring directly into the rock face, which in turn adds additional friction heat to that being generated by the running of the machines.

It was therefore vital to supply cooling that both made it comfortable for the workers, at the same time had the capacity to remove the excessive heat from the machinery.

To ensure that the machinery was kept working at a high capacity it was necessary to ensure the cooling water was supplied at a lower temperature than was currently in circulation.

This was achieved by providing 450KW cooling coils that were installed in the plenum and connected to a 450KW chiller.

In order to supply the air conditioning in the tunnel temporary plenums were fitted to the fan intakes.

This equipment helped to reduce the temperature of the air supply by 10C and the temperature of the cooling water to 18C.

Mike Derbyshire, Longville CRS said, "The success of this project has demonstrated that by removing the heat at the source and using the existing distribution systems to apply this, the desired results are achieved in a speedy and cost effective manner".

He continues "The co-operation and assistance we received in fabrication works has contributed greatly to the time elapsed between receiving the order to being fully operational".

"Our experience of large air-conditioning applications meant that we were completely confident in our ability to meet the client needs".

Any form of tunnelling or mining operation can produce conditions and temperatures that are difficult for both men and machinery to work effectively.

The need to supply the cooling was necessary for the continuation of the project and will therefore continue until the temperature in the tunnel naturally becomes lower or the need for the machinery is no longer necessary.

Back to top