Thomas Betong (before known as AB Färdig Betong) erected their first concrete plant in Karlstad in 1955. A couple of years later, company was headquartered in Gothenburg, where it is still located today. Nowadays Thomas Betong also operates in American, German and Polish ready-mix concrete markets. Altogether Thomas Betong has about 160 concrete plants, 38 of these in Sweden.
“Västlänken” railway project in Gothenburg is currently one of the largest and most closely followed construction project in Sweden. The new railway connection will significantly upgrade the connections between Gothenburg and western-Sweden. Total length of the new railway will be about 8 km, 6km of this will run under ground in the tunnels. I addition to this, three new underground railway stations will be constructed. The railway project is estimated to be ready in 2026. Estimated need of fiber concrete and normal concrete is over 300 000 m³.
Pre-installed insulation – fast installation even of ”winter” plants. All winter equipment – housing of the modules as well as additional devices, pipes and cables inside the modules – were factory installed and does not need to be disassembled when moving the plant.
Two specialists from Tecwill were in Gothenburg to help assist installation supervision. All started with the safety training. After the training, the concrete plant modules were delivered to the site and the installation started. The site for the concrete plant was in the center of Gothenburg, next to the main train station.
The timing and routing of the transports to the worksite required careful planning from us. The driving routes to the site changed according to the progress of the project and the need of a space. Unloading of loads, positioning of containers and module and the lifting work with the crane was done by the end of the week. The installation stayed on schedule. The weather in Gothenburg were rainy, not cold and windy, as usual in January.
The environmental requirements for the concrete plant to be installed in the city center are demanding. There must be taken into account of noise, size limitations and very strict emission requirements. The Arcamix concrete plant met all the requirements. In Arcamix concrete plant, the cement scale is equipped with a separate filter to control the cement dust. The maximum height limitation of the plant was able to fulfill with low Arcamix plant structure.
Saving cement with the ”flying” aggregate dosing and weighing system reduces CO2 emissions of concrete production.
Thanks to the ”flying” aggregate dosing and weighing system, the height of the loading edge of the aggregate bins is very low, approximately 3 m. Lower height of loading edge height results in a lower loading ramp, leading to huge savings in pay-loader fuel and operational costs. Bin volume remains the same, but space needed for the plant and the loading ramp is significantly smaller. This is a big advantage especially when the plant needs to be placed on a plot in city centre.
Last few weeks has shown that we are able to continue works with Thomas Betong in future. But more on that later.