HUGENOTE TUNNEL

WORK EXPERIENCE

LEON DE ROOCK

1. Tunnel History

2. Technologies Used – My Involvement/Duties

a. Lighting

b. Fire Systems

c. PLC

d. Networks

e. Ventilation

f. Electrical HT Switchgear

g. SOS

h. CCTV

i. Traffic Control Systems

j. Toll Plaza Systems

k. Water systems

l. Health and Safety (HSE)

3. Achievements

4. Projects/Project Management

5. CV

Index

The entire tunnel is fitted out with fluorescent 4ft tubes and

there are three fluorescent tubes per phase with every tenth

light fitting that are an ups fitting.

During normal operations both sides are set at 65

percentage of the lumination setting where as during

emergency conditions the lamination is set at 100 percent.

The adaptation lightning system at the entrance/exit to

tunnel controls the lights so that the human eye can adapt

easily to different light levels inside the tunnel.

Here the systems were maintained are repairs were done

accordingly.

These systems are now absolute and as technical manager

with consultant engineer for SANRAL, we were busy in the

process of evaluating and procuring new systems and led

fittings from BECA/Schneider for replacement for existing

systems.

The tunnel in length are about 4Km, thus the tunnel are

splitted in half and each half are controlled by separated fire

control panels which in turn communicates with each other

and relay fire conditions to the plc’s to control the ventilation

system.

Heat detectors with a double knock are used and are

situated throughout the tunnel at 15m intervals.

The system is hardwired as well as Scada controlled to allow

redundancy in case of any failure due to server or network

issues.

This year capital work projects will commence to upgrade

the fire system as it also has come to end of life.

As technician I did all the , software setup and

maintenance on system.

The tunnel is controlled by Siemens S7 package and was one

of the first sites that operated on the S7 system in South

Africa.

The plc network consists of fibre optic profibus system. All the

plant variables and inputs are relayed to plc’s and then

process and displayed on a Scada system in the tunnel

control room via operator workstations.

My duties here were to repair and maintain the system at all

times as this were the hart beat of the tunnel.

Each cross connection in the tunnel was fitted with network

switches and is linked with each other by means of a

redundant fibre optic network.

As single fibre optics were installed in the tunnel, the tunnel

also still used multimode as existing systems still has to be

accommodated to interface with present systems.

Here I installed and setup network switches and created

Vlan’s to accommodate new CCTV, SOS and well as

management systems to integrate with servers to allow

functionally.

The tunnel is equipped with two 400KW fresh air and two

1000KW exhaust fans.

The fresh air fans have a two speed controlled operation and

blades can be controlled between 13-45 degrees.

The exhaust fans are mainly used in fire emergency

conditions as well in cases where poor visibility in the tunnel

requires urgent intervention.

As the technician the electronic side of this system was my

responsibility and together with the electrician and

mechanical fitter to do repairs and to keep the operation of

the ventilation system at a 100 percent availability.

The power inside the tunnel consists of various high and low

voltage distribution power networks.

Primarily the tunnel is fed via two Eskom 11Kv power feeding

cables with a backup feeder overhead line from Paarl

municipality.

The ventilation fan’s inside the tunnel operates on 6.6KV

power source via high voltage transformers.

In this field my work was only limited to inputs and outputs

signals that were fed to the plc’s.

I further have competency by operating High voltage

switchgear switching up to 22KV.

Here I also assisted the HT engineer (appointed by SANRAL)

in protection trips, signal injection and testing of all relevant

alarm conditions.

The tunnel was equipped with a new SOS system working in

conjunction with a public address system.

It is an Ethernet base system and was interface onto the fibre

optic network.

I installed all the hardware equipment up to where the

appointed supplier setup and commissioned the system.

The tunnel has come a long way since the days of cctv

video. I started out by only using pal cameras, then

interfacing pal cameras with ip video converters and lately

moving towards video management ip systems.

Currently the tunnel operates on a Bosch video

management system.

Since the network was upgraded, the demand for CCTV

coverage throughout the tunnel was a high priority.

Another 50 cameras was added for monitor and security

surveillance. Here I installed, setup and commissioned the

entire CCTV system.

Certain cameras that monitored slow moving, deceleration

and stop vehicle detection via the Trafficon system had to

be interface with new Bosch system.

Each incident that are alarmed will trigger a traffic plan that

in turn will switch certain traffic signals, variable messages

signs within the tunnel.

Traffic system such as the Trafficon system is the hard of

operation in relaying correct incidents to alarm and keeps

the operator at all times updated with traffic flow,

congestions as well as any breakdowns in the tunnel.

Here I maintained, setup and repaired all traffic control

systems to a point of 100 percent availability.

Part of the Huguenot Tunnel operations is the collection of

toll fees. Auto vehicle classifications systems were used to

classify different class of vehicles for correct collection of

monies.

Although the toll plaza operation went through different toll

collection systems through the years, the operations and

method of software and hardware integration remains the

same principal of operation

Systems were maintained by me and to allow full toll lane

availability for traffic toll collection at all times.

As the possibility of fire condition in the tunnel at any time the

tunnel fire hydrant system are fed by two reservoirs up the

mountain on either side of the mountain that will provide

enough water pressure for fire extinguishment.

My responsibilities were to check and maintain all electronic

valves and reservoir level indication transmitters/sensors

within the water system.

As health and safety is an important aspect in the tunnel

operations, the company strived for zero harm tolerance in

the work environment.

As a Health and Safety committee member my

responsibilities was to oversee all HSE matters regarding sub-

contractors that were onsite.

Here I implemented a Safety file system where all the

contracted and non-contracted contractors where listed

and recorded.

Risk assessments were done for each contractor that was

onsite in their scope of work. Regular HSE meetings were held

to involved contractors in safe working practices.

Huguenot tunnel operations received 100 percent external

audit report for five consecutive months.

In my job as maintenance technician, the ability to provide

the availability of all systems at any time to the operations of

the tunnel and toll plaza, were great achievements as I

strived for perfection.

As Technical Manager my achievements were to complete

all projects and projects within budgets for SANRAL. There

were challenges, but through dedicated work I have

achieved it.

In my work environment to communicate with different

workforce personal, civil and technical to interact and work

together as a team was a great achievement as well.

As the technical manager in collaboration with SANRAL and

the engineer representing SANRAL for the Huguenot tunnel

we discuss future projects and the implementation of

upgrading systems.

SANRAL will allocate budgets for certain projects as well as

capital works. Once projects were decided on, I will source

and do pricing on systems that will fit the criteria. Some of the

projects were civil; here I only oversee these projects on

behalf of SANRAL.

The latest project was to extent the street lighting from the

existing streetlights to over the VIADUCT Bridge with LED light

fittings from BECA/Schneider.

As the bridge lights had to be at a 45 degree angle to the

road surface to illuminate the roadway, the challenge was

to illuminate the bridge in a way that the eco environment

was not compromised.

SEE CV for other projects.