New data center Polanenpark, Amsterdam | 2,600 tons of steel erected in 8 weeks

A state-of-the-art data center for CyrusOne is under construction in Halfweg, the heart of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. GS Staalwerken, responsible for the steel structure of the new data center, processed an enormous amount of steel in the new building in record time. An interview with Eric Van Dooren of GS Staalwerken.

"Together with the Willemen Group's Belgian construction company Cosimco, we tendered for CyrusOne around the 2018 construction period," Van Dooren begins. "A few months later, we were awarded the work. We did the detailed engineering, including the drawing work, delivered and assembled the steelwork and welded another 60,000 pieces of dowels onto the steel beams on site." The structure of the data center consists of two intermediate floors constructed of steel beams with a steel plate concrete floor on top. Van Dooren said the choice of a steel plate concrete floor had to do with limiting weight and floor height.

All work is done in-house and with our own people,
also quietly unique in the construction world.

Huge quantities

In the space of just eight weeks, GS Staalwerken erected the steel shell, including the steel plate concrete floors of the data center building itself. Says Van Dooren, "That meant a daily supply of three full trucks of steel, totaling 2,600 tons, which was assembled by three crews with access to 120-ton crawler cranes. In fact, a total of 3,600 tons of steel structure will be incorporated into the complex: data center, offices and canopies. Some 51,000 bolts are involved in the assembly and, as mentioned, 60,000 dowels for the purpose of anchoring the steel construction with the steel plate concrete floor." In the meantime, GS Steelworks is also building two offices with two floors each and canopies, for which the company is supplying and assembling 3,000 m² of slatted floors. "All in all, a huge amount of steel is being processed on a relatively small construction site. All work is being done in-house and with our own people, also quietly unique in the construction world. The data center itself should be completed in September 2019 including fireproofing and installations," Van Dooren said.

GS Staalwerken has numerous high-profile and ingenious steel projects to its name, often fully taken care of from engineering to installation on site. In addition to utility projects, the company is also active in infra (smaller bridge structures and sections and pedestrian and bicycle passages) as well as (to a limited extent) in the onshore and offshore wind industry.