Specialist in safe automation technology develops together with Province of South Holland 

new standard control software for bridges and locks

Our water-rich country has hundreds of bridges and locks. Many of these structures are now in urgent need of renovation. In this huge maintenance and replacement task, cooperation is more important than ever. They know that at the Province of South Holland (PZH). For more than ten years they have been working together with Pilz, which as a specialist partner supplies total solutions for safety and automation technology for bridges and locks, among other things.

"PZH's acreage consists of ninety movable bridges and five locks," says Stefan Knapen, Senior Advisor on Movable Artworks at PZH. "You can imagine that maintaining and renovating these artworks is an extensive job." 

The power of a construction team

According to Stefan, it is crucial to engage with the right parties early on. "We like to work in construction teams. This allows us to see together how we can deploy specialist knowledge, expertise and capacity intelligently and where we can make use of new techniques and working methods. All with the aim of realizing the task as sustainably and efficiently as possible and making artworks future-proof." 

Key innovation partner

Pilz is one such important innovation partner of PZH. "We know how to find each other well on issues of machine and functional safety," says Stefan. "They are our 'preferred supplier' of the well-known yellow boxes with PLCs." Emiel van Zundert, Project Manager at Pilz Nederland: "We use our years of experience to make structures sustainably safe and to ensure that they comply with the applicable laws and regulations. We attach great value to the input of our customers, such as PZH. They know better than anyone else what situations arise at civil engineering structures and how they are operated." Stefan adds: "It is valuable that Pilz is open to our input and that of a contractor so that we can jointly contribute to a well-functioning end result."

Automation and standardization

In addition to good and early cooperation, automation and standardization also play a major role in the efficient and fast execution of projects. "With our control software PAS 4000, we have developed a specific application for PZH that is applicable for all bridges located in the areal of PZH. We are now going to apply this setup for the locks as well."

From Bridge 1.0 to Lock 2.0

Most of the existing bridges of the Province of South Holland operate with Pilz' PSS 3000 bridge control system. Also known as Bridge 1.0. At the time, Province of South Holland commissioned Pilz to design a new standard bridge control with PSS 4000. "The standard bridge software Bridge 2.0 is a further development of Bridge 1.0, now using specifically developed modular software blocks per sub-installation. In doing so, we worked with PZH to scrutinize the full operation of the bridge and supplemented it with more diagnostics and functionality missing in Bridge 1.0." Bridge 2.0 will be applied to all bridges in the province that are being renovated or newly built to make the controls future-proof again. "And we want the same for our locks," Stefan adds. "So there will be a Lock 2.0 and we are going to apply it first in the renovation of the Juliana Lock in Gouda."

Modular so flexible

The standard bridge or lock control is designed generically, with the application completely scalable to various configurations. "It doesn't matter if there are two or 12 barriers, four or 16 land traffic signals, one or two bridge traps ... this is all configurable. When you combine those modular software blocks with PLC hardware that is scalable, it creates tremendous flexibility. For example, for bridge software, a hydraulic version is currently being developed where the software blocks being developed are the basis to apply for hydraulic control of locks." Of course, all new software functionalities as well as the hardware are carefully tested in both Pilz's and PZH's own simulation environment before they are implemented in the bridges and locks. "In this way, risks can be assessed and eliminated in advance," says Stefan, looking forward to Pilz implementing a combination of Bridge 2.0 with Lock 2.0 at all five locks in the province.