Pilz realizes new control center for movable bridges 

In an earlier article in GWW, we already elaborated on the strategic cooperation between the Province of South Holland and Pilz Nederland. While at that time it was about standard control software for bridges and locks, Pilz is working in parallel on the realization of a new control center for the movable bridges in the Province
South Holland. Ricardo Duijser, project engineer at Pilz Nederland, and Coen Veldhuis,
senior advisor/project manager at Province of South Holland (PZH), talk more about it.

"There are currently three operating centers in the Province of South Holland," says Ricardo. "De Waard in Leiden serves the bridges west of the Alphen aan den Rijn - Rotterdam line together with the Leidschendam control center. And then there is Steekterpoort, a modern, large control center in Alphen aan den Rijn. From here, the operation of bridges in the Alphen aan den Rijn area is regulated remotely."

New control center

In order to continue to enable the smooth, safe and reliable guidance of commercial and recreational shipping in the future, it has been decided to merge the Leidschendam and De Waard control centers into one new center. This will be at the Central Koningspoort in the Provinciehuis in The Hague. "The beauty of the modification to the existing software that Pilz is implementing here is that every bridge in the Province of South Holland will be fully automated to operate from both control centers," says Coen. "That offers much more flexibility." Ricardo explains that the number of operating stations will be increased to 24 and that Pilz is in the process of further optimizing the software so that the data flow is better distributed among the available PLCs.

Training Center

"Quite unique in that is that 6 of the 24 operating sites should also be able to be used for training purposes," says Ricardo. "Right now PZH has the training center in Gouda, but so that will also be in the Provincial House. These 6 spots are in a separate room and must be switchable from the production side to training side and vice versa."

New implementation = extensive testing

"A new control center with a modified control concept, that is of course not nothing," says Coen. "So then it is of great importance that everything is carefully tested: it must be shown that it works the way PZH wants it to and the way Pilz has conceived it. In fact, I don't want a construction process, but a testing process. Fortunately, that is also the way things work at Pilz." Ricardo: "We have pulled the entire control system ahead of the modified operating concept, so that we can already start implementing and testing it now, before we merge all the parts later. That way we know that the custom concept we came up with for communication is demonstrably working." Only then will everything be placed in their test setup at PZH. "For that technical elaboration, there will be close cooperation between PZH, Pilz providing the controls, CGI for the Graphical User Interface and the network operator, so that everything will function optimally." Coen explains that it is quite a complicated schedule to get everything in line. "Then it's nice that Pilz works nicely with that to make sure everything runs smoothly."

Strategic collaboration

"The most important thing about building software is using the software," Coen continues. "It just has to work nicely, and that's where I find Pilz. They are able to think out-of-the-box, are critical of us as well as themselves, think further and think with us. As the inventor of a certain functionality, I can indicate to Pilz what they need to pay attention to. They pick this up, incorporate the wishes, requirements and starting points, supplement this with their own expertise and get to work. Meanwhile, they ask sharp and critical questions that are good for the process and the end result." Ricardo adds: "With us, automation is not an end in itself, but is supportive of the assignment. In this case: operating bridges remotely with fewer people." Coen concludes, "All aspects, such as the quality of the solution, but also time, budget, information and documentation are included in the process, and that, if you ask me, is the strength of Pilz and the strategic cooperation with PZH."