Monitoring water quality at the West Link construction site

The railway system in Göteborg is stressed. To increase the capacity of the system an new train tunnel called the West Link is being built. The aim is to decrease the car dependency from surrounding municipalities. A large part of the train tunnel is located below the the city centre, and three underground stations will be built. This enormous construction project already started in 2018 and is due for completion in 2026.[1]

How does SCOREwater relate to the West Link?

The SCOREwater sampling points are located at the stage near the central station in Göteborg. The project has installed several different types of sensors to monitor the storm water close to the construction site. The Göteborg case study is focusing on increased understanding of the impact from construction storm water, and to identify solutions to minimize the environmental impact on the construction water released into the storm water system.

How do we gather data?

• Online monitoring of several water quality parameters in the storm water system
• Meteorological data from the area
• Additional (sensor) measurements in recipient close to a construction site

All the above mentioned data have been gathered from March 2021 until May 2022.

Lessons learned

• There are efficient technical solutions to treat construction water at site to reduce the environmental impact from the construction site.
• To monitor specific water the design of the monitoring system is of great importance to be able to reach a correct estimation of the magnitude of the environmental impact. The catchment area of the stormwater system can be very big.
• The science center Universeum have developed water purification labs using technology applied at the west link project.

Next steps

There still is one year left in the project. During this year the case study will further analyse the project data. Next to this, data models for predicting turbidity from construction sites will be further developed. The data will be delivered to the City of Göteborg its internal data platform.

[1] https://swedenunderground.com/tunnel/west-link-gothenburg/