PAP took fire safety underground

Most of the fire safety projects delivered by PAP Group are at above-ground sites, such as public properties, shopping centres and hospitals. That is why, according to PAP’s safety expert Pentti Sormunen, the Keilaniemi tunnel project was an interesting challenge for PAP. “We have been involved in tunnel projects before, but every time they still feel special. In this project, the scale made it even more interesting than usual.”

In the Keilaniemi project, PAP worked closely with the electrical contractor ARE. “We were probably chosen to deliver the tunnel’s fire safety solutions because both ARE and the project’s main contractor, SRV Infra, already knew us. They were already aware of our expertise in demanding projects like this. Our project management skills, and the systematic, predictable workflow they bring, were certainly also factors in the decision.”

Best-in-class fire protection in challenging conditions

Pentti Sormunen says that PAP brought fire safety on a comprehensive scale to the Keilaniemi tunnel. “We supplied the fire alarm control and indicating equipment, the detectors and a linear heat detection cable solution for the site. An Emergency Response Centre connection was also installed, through which the Emergency Response Centre receives information about a fire from the tunnel’s fire alarm system in an emergency.”

In the Keilaniemi project, PAP was responsible for checking the fire system designs drawn up by the electrical designer and having them approved by the authorities, for commissioning the systems and for the project documentation. In future, PAP will also take care of the maintenance and servicing of the tunnel’s fire systems.

PAP is an experienced provider of large fire safety projects, which is why projects like Keilaniemi are carried through within the company with practised ease and according to a clear pattern. “At the start of the project, I was responsible for handling the commercial negotiations, orders and contracts. Once these had been completed, the project passed to our project manager and their team. This team took care of the practical planning and implementation of the project and of checking the fire alarm system designs drawn up by the external electrical designer. Once the electrical contractor’s work had progressed to a suitable stage, we started the equipment deliveries. After the contractor had installed the equipment, our project team also took care of commissioning and testing the systems.”

Challenges are there to be solved

Taking a fire safety solution underground is always a project with challenges of its own. This is especially true of a tunnel that must carry the heavy traffic of Ring Road I without interruption. “The most important thing, of course, is to safeguard the people driving through the tunnel. At a site like this, the fire safety system must be extremely reliable and backed up. At Keilaniemi, we used what is known as a secured duplicated loop. This ensures that the system as a whole keeps working even if one of its individual parts stops working.”

Another challenge in tunnel projects relates to maintaining the system. “Traffic in the Keilaniemi tunnel runs almost non-stop. When designing the system, we therefore also had to make sure that, when maintenance work becomes due, it causes as little disruption as possible to traffic in the tunnel.”

The actual commissioning of the fire safety system also had its own challenges. “Access to work areas in the tunnel was restricted, and getting around was slow in the early stages. This made the practical work more demanding. In tunnels, the fire safety systems have a great many control outputs to other safety systems, for example to traffic light control and traffic management centres. Coordinating and testing all of this together is always tricky. Schedules also play their part in success. When several parties are involved, the original plans do not always hold.”

According to Pentti Sormunen, the way a company approaches and overcomes challenges shows its professional expertise. “For our part, we wanted to ensure that the work progressed smoothly through active communication and close cooperation with the other parties in the project. We have a lot of experience of carrying out large projects, and on that basis we were able to anticipate things well. We actively informed the other parties about which work stages needed to be completed at any given time so that commissioning of the systems could proceed as planned.”

Good work is something to be proud of

Pentti Sormunen lists examples of underground projects that PAP has been involved in over its history. “We have worked on tunnels in Hämeenlinna, Leppävaara in Espoo and Itäväylä in Helsinki, among others. Our other underground projects have included the civil defence shelter tunnels in Otaniemi and the underground facilities in Jätkäsaari. Each of these projects has been unique and has further broadened our expertise in delivering projects of this kind.”

Even for an experienced company, success still feels good every time. “Keilaniemi added further to our long experience of tunnel projects and showed us what cooperation with other parties can be at its best. At Keilaniemi, the organisation of the work functioned well, and we are proud of the system improvements we were able to get through for the site. This was a demanding project, and bringing it to such a fine conclusion is something we can tip our hats to ourselves for!”

Photo: Traffic Management Finland