Installation of first cables Market Hall

This week the first steel cables of the cablenet facades of the Market Hall in Rotterdam are being installed. Installation works have started at the city centre side, facing the school at the Dominee Jan Scharpstraat. At present, it is already visible that the glass facades of the Market Hall will be featured by an exceptionally slender structure.

Octatube employees have commenced with the horizontal cables at a height of 30 meters above ground level. At one side the cables are fixed to a steel 'birdhouse', and on the other side by means of a tension bridge. This tension bridge can be removed after the cables have been prestressed. The tensile forces are maximum 300 kN per cable. During this action the cable will stretch around 150 millimeters. Currently the cables have a sag of 700 millimeters because of their dead weight. This is the same magnitude of deflection which is allowed when the facades are in use during an extreme Dutch storm.


picture courtesy: Frank Swiderski, JP van Eesteren

After the pre-stressing of the cables in the first facade, the installation of the second facade will commence at the Binnenrotte side.