Wankdorf stadium and building

The Wankdorf building and stadium complex opened back in 2005. Today, in addition to the stadium, it includes a shopping centre, offices, schools, doctors’ surgeries, a multi-storey car park and a stand-alone training centre building, as well as CSL Behring’s head office. During the modernisation of the fire alarm and security management system years later, all the buildings had to remain operational, and it was important that users should not notice any disruption to their safety while the work was carried out.

Modernisation without interruption to operations thanks to teamwork.

The fact that the supply of spare parts for the outdated system would no longer be guaranteed at some point meant that a comprehensive modernisation of the fire detection and security management systems was necessary. This was done without interrupting any part of the safety system – a supreme achievement. A detailed concept was developed in collaboration with the technical facility management arm of Bouygues Energies & Services and implemented over a number of months. 
 

The biggest challenge for us lay in ensuring that fire protection continued during the renovation. The plan, which was successfully implemented, was to operate the old and new systems in parallel. Our technical project manager, Robert Vinicky, explains: “Since the locations of the operating stations and control panels remained the same, space was very limited. We had to remove the existing control panels from the wall and temporarily hang them from ropes. The new panels were mounted on the wall behind.” For him, the cooperation between his team and Bouygues ES was the key to success: “A project like this can only be realised successfully with good teamwork. Like football – everyone knew what to do and we were 100% committed to it.”

Reliability as the backbone of collaboration.

The new fire protection system now consists of almost 3500 combined detectors able to pinpoint the smallest concentrations of smoke and heat and relay the information to the 18 state-of-the-art SecuriFire alarm control panels. In addition, the alarm can be raised using one of the 252 manual call points. The fire protection system is connected to our SecuriLink UMS security management system, which provides a clear graphical display of the status of the Wankdorf complex on two monitors. 
 

The modernisation of the fire alarm system also presented the technical staff at Bouygues ES with an impressive challenge. Daniel Vetter, Head of the BE/SO region at Bouygues ES, emphasises that it was important that “customers in the shopping centre and spectators in the stadium had no idea a renovation was taking place; they were in a building that was at all times safe in terms of fire protection.” Of course, the excellent cooperation also contributed to the success: “Deadlines were met, everything was well organised and the budgets were met,” concludes Vetter.