Challenge
Trane Rental has been instrumental in supporting a key infrastructure project to extend Vienna’s S-Bahn suburban commuter rail network.
The expansion of the underground railway network is a huge milestone in Vienna’s urban development and, overall, involves seven kilometres of tunnelling through densely populated, residential areas.
A major challenge for Trane Rental’s client – a large construction consortium – was to freeze the earth sufficiently at Matzleinsdorfer Platz station to allow drilling. When a tunnel is under construction – especially in areas where the earth is not very solid and at risk of collapse – freezing the earth is absolutely vital.
The construction project was taking place 30m below street level with part of the tunnel needing to be built directly underneath a flyover. Space was very limited at the site and utilising air-cooled chillers immediately under the flyover was not viable as warm air would just be trapped and recirculate.
Solution
The total capacity requirement was for 600kW at -30°C water outlet. Trane’s solution – involving an innovative combination of air-cooled and water-cooled chillers – provided far lower cooling water supply than was otherwise possible.
The Austrian Trane Rental team installed:
• 5 x VLT60 low temp water-cooled screw chillers immediately under the flyover, supplemented by
• 2 RTAF air-cooled screw chillers in the open air
The VLT60 has the latest energy-saving 50HP Frascold screw compressors , offering a wide temperature range of -10°C to -40°C water leaving temperature and 10% - 100% capacity control. The VLT60 is also fully F-gas compliant and offers a zero ozone-depleting HFC refrigerant. With low noise operation and compact footprint , the VLT60 unit was ideal for the Matzleinsdorfer Platz station project.
Results
Matzleinsdorfer Platz station first opened in 1969. It was closed temporarily in March 2021 to allow construction work to take place and re-opened in April 2022.
The construction consortium was very satisfied with Trane Rental’s solution which, despite the very tight space available, easily provided the required capacity. This was a very high-profile project. As the main construction activity was taking place in a city centre location, it was also subject to intense media scrutiny.
Installing the equipment took a week and involved a five-strong team of Trane technicians and Trane Rental Services was able to meet the stringent construction timeline.
The rail extension project is set to take seven years. It will reduce car use in the Austria’s capital city and result in increased capacity on the rail network of 30%.
