A few days ago the General Contractor of the project "Construction of a New Safe Confinement", NOVARKA, celebrated a kind of jubilee - 20 million man-hours of work at the site.
The unique structure of the Arch, exceeding in the sizes the largest stadiums and being the largest mobile arched structure in the world, is erected by professionals of more than 27 different nationalities. For example, for lifting operations it was necessary to resort to professionals from Azerbaijan, as theyhad the necessary experience of work with great loads after working on oil platforms; Italian climbers were initially engaged in works at height; cladding is arranged by Turkish company using German technology; Portuguese experts are engaged in the erection of formwork, etc. But, of course, the linking in the team are Ukrainian workers (2000 Ukrainian workers, of which more than 1000 workers are always present at the site).
Project (NOVARKA) Director Nicolas Caille, who has been working at construction sites in Europe, Asia and Africa for more than 20 years, concerning these unique works says the following:
«The Arch cladding is approximately 16 ha of stainless steel. In addition, the technology of the cladding is very complex. It consists of seven different layers and has been designed specially for Chernobyl at universities of Germany and England.
... Cladding works at such height have not been done before at any site because our Arch is twice as large as any stadium. Italian high-altitude climbers hardly once tightened 600,000 boltings at this height.
...The Arch with all its equipment weighs about 36 000 tons. In France we always compare everything with the Eiffel Tower. So, Arch weighs 6 times more than the Eiffel Tower. Sliding of such a big and heavy metal structure has never been performed in the world».
At the moment, assembly of the Arch is almost completed, except for the eastern wall. Installation of the life-support system inside the two connected parts of the Arch is underway, it concerns power supply and ventilation systems, main cranes system, lifting systems, access systems, and others. In parallel, construction of the concrete Technological building is in progress, which is located at the foot of the Arch and which will house remote control panels of all systems, areas of decontamination, fragmentation and packaging, sanitary locks, workshops, and other technological rooms. Works on facades of the Technological building will be completed by the winter. The construction of the building is proceeding, which will house electrical systems, autonomous supply system with independent generators capable of supplying electricity in the event of electric outage.
All activities are executed on schedule, which means that by the end of 2017, as expected, the NSC will take its design position over the Shelter Object.
FYI: NOVARKA, a joint venture comprised of companies VINCI CONSTRUCTION and BOUYGUES TRAVAUX PUBLICS, performing the design, construction and commissioning of the New Safe Confinement over the destroyed Unit 4 of Chernobyl NPP.
NSC is designed for: a temperature in the range from -43 to + 45 ° C; tornado class 3; earthquake of maximum intensity at 6 points MSK 64.
