Covering more than 60,000 square meters, the equivalent of nine soccer pitches, Norwegian retailer Europris’ new storage and distribution center is massive. One of its two buildings rises almost 40 meters above the ground, reminiscent of a skyscraper extending from the flat landscape outside Moss, south of Oslo.

The enormous site rises up like a giant to greet visitors as they arrive. Up to 25 meters below, the tiny figures of construction workers busy themselves with more than a dozen diggers, trucks, and dumpers. Schafisheim's former gravel quarry is now 300 meters long and 100 meters wide.

​It is here that the country's largest bakery, which from 2016 will produce 60,000 tons of bread and baked goods every year, is taking shape. «The ground must be able to withstand the same loads as the Prime Tower in Zurich,» says Diego Lechmann of Food Engineering. «We have a general engineering brief,» underlines the architect, who specializes in construction for the food industry. This brief includes the highly automated logistics, «which we have tested in pilot projects.» 

The volume of the mammoth building alone, which runs along the Aarauerstrasse, is almost a million cubic meters. There are 1,300 parking spaces below ground. In addition to the bakery and confectionery, there is space for the empties store and automated frozen storage.

The old Coop distribution center is surrounded by the new buildings, so to speak. The biggest complex is connected to the current site via a tunnel underneath the Rupperswilerstrasse and a two-story linkway for pedestrians and logistics.

​The blue thermal insulation in the foundation slab of the building in the southerly section of the site catches the eye. «This will be home to the automated cold storage for dairy products, meat, fruit, vegetables, salad, and much more,» explains Lechmann as we take a tour of the site.

Montenegro is a small, mountainous country with 800,000 inhabitants. And it is the only country in the Balkans which does not currently have any freeways of its own. This creates an economic problem as it hinders tourism along the Adriatic coast and makes it difficult to access various parts of the country. Thankfully, a solution is on the way and will be ready in four years' time. 

​According to Lu Shan, Chairman of the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the construction of the first freeway section between Smokovac and Matehevo is set to be completed by 2020. CRBC is heavily involved in the implementation of the project, which is also being largely financed by Chinese funds. The plan is to complete the entire road infrastructure project by 2022.

​In order to connect up the new freeway network, which will snake its way all over Montenegro, 42 tunnels and 92 bridges/viaducts will need to be built. The tunnels are scheduled to be finished by 2020.  

​Tunisia is Africa's northernmost country, with a coastline along the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east, and two bordering countries: Algeria to the west and Libya to the south-east. Spanning some 163,610 km², it is approximately twice the size of Austria. Tunisia boasts a highly competitive economy and a population in excess of ten million.

​In an effort to stimulate its economic and social development, the Republic of Tunisia is making investments in its road infrastructure. For the first time in the country's history, this is involving the construction of a road tunnel featuring state-of-the-art sealing work that uses geosynthetics.

Over a total length of 3 km, the intention is to link the GP10 and X thoroughfares in the Tunis and Ariana regions by means of four tunnels – with four lanes. The tunnels in this case are covered trenches whose length stretches over 1.2 km in total. Construction is scheduled to be completed within 30 months.

​The project aims to not only establish an improved link between the city of La Soukra and the main Tunis arteries, but also reduce the volume of traffic at Tunis-Carthage International Airport and on the major roads that surround it.

For the Winter Swimming World Championship in Russian Tura a pool basin was needed that could be implemented without heavy construction equipment. Klyaksa 72, an advertising company, is used to think out of the box and built the basin out of strong PVC mesh. Klyaksa could count on the great service of Olmax and Leister‘s UNIPLAN E hot air welder turned out to be indispensable for creating infrastructure. 

The 10th annual Winter Swimming World Championships was held March 8-12 in Tyumen, Russia. The competition drew 1,275 participants from 42 countries worldwide. Swimmers competed in events ranging from 25’s of all strokes to the 200 freestyle in pool filled with water from the river in Siberia. 

The swimmers had to compete in an open reservoir: a lake, a river, or a bay. One of the largest rivers in the Siberian Tyumen region, Tura was chosen as the venue of the 2016 Championship. It was necessary to build a pool basin, while resolving the following tasks: to ensure the safety of swimmers and compensate the current level of the river. Many options were discussed: from the manufacturing of an aluminum frame to drilling piles - these would be costly projects, the implementation of which would cost a few million rubles. 

Mexico, a country stretching from Guatemala's subtropical climes in the south up to the dry Arizona desert in the north, is continuously confronted with water shortages as well as polluted subterranean and surface waters. 

Consequently, wastewater treatment has the two-fold objective of preventing the contamination of water bodies, while at the same time using waste water to generate purified water, which can be used for irrigation and/or sanitary purposes. Eight years ago, the company Think TIM brought European technology to Mexico to carry out this task on a small scale at domestic level, or to treat water in small establishments such as hotels, businesses, or residential developments.​

Last year, during the celebrations of the seventieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Switzerland, a privileged location was chosen for building La Casa de Suiza, a temporary thematic pavilion that hosted an ​exhibition about Switzerland's historical, cultural, and scientific heritage for the duration of two months. Louis-José Touron, the current Swiss Ambassador to Mexico, described the house as “a temporary and sustainable space that will enable the strengthening of bilateral links with Mexico, while at the same time opening spaces for Mexicans to learn a little more about our history, science, traditions, and gastronomy".

The “D-Fitness” swimming pool (formerly the “Dynamo”) in Kazakhstan’s former capital and largest city, Almaty, was built in 1930. It was the only indoor swimming pool with 50-metre (164 ft) lanes, corresponding with Olympic standards, in the entire country until 1967. The need for refurbishment was so obvious by 2012 that a fundamental overhaul was initiated. The swimming pool was to be open to the public as well as to serve Kazakh athletes. The construction and building work for Olympic swimming pools is technically complicated. Compliance with strict specifications, which apply to such pools everywhere including Kazakhstan, was necessary for this, the largest pool in the country. 

To meet the high quality standards, 1.6 mm PVC waterproofing membrane was used to seal the swimming basin – in a suitable, light blue color for swimming, of course. To ensure that the welding ​seams were completely hermetically sealed, Leister welders were used. The VARIMAT V2 hot air welder as well as numerous TRIAC S and TRIAC AT hot air tools from the Swiss manufacturer were employed. Historically, the VARIMAT V2 is primarily used for welding over-lapping plastic waterproofing membranes on roofs, but it is also suitable for connecting the sealing sheeting for swimming pools. With the VARIMAT’s understandable and easy to use «e-drive» control unit, relevant welding parameters for speed, temperature and air volume can be simply regulated and controlled. It is also very cost-effective with speeds of up to 12 m/min (39 ft/min). Leister’s well-known reliability also applies to the manual welders in the TRIAC series. Here, the welders were used for detail work on closures and details such as stairs and drains. The TRIAC AT has a display that allows both the temperature and the air volume to be digitally-monitored. 

The roof membrane of the new Amazon Logistics Center in Vercelli, Italy, was welded with a Leister VARIMAT V2 in July 2017 of last year.

Successful under time pressure and temperature fluctuations
108,000 square metres of roof area - as large as 15 football fields – is a considerable area, for a roof and for a VARIMAT V2. The project lasted from February to July 2017 and welding was made more difficult by temperature fluctuations. Temperature fluctuations were caused not only by the changing of the seasons from winter to spring to summer, but especially in the summer by the change from day to night. The VARIMAT V2's welding temperature had to be adjusted through-out the day to counteract changes in the outside temperature; this ensures high quality welding seams that will not leak. 

Be on the safe side with closed-loop technology from LEISTER
With the closed-loop technology from LEISTER you are on the safe side when it comes to the quality of the welding seam. Why? This technology guarantees that the parameters remain permanently constant even in the case of voltage fluctuations. In this way you always achieve consistent welds under different conditions on the construction site. 

This large gold mine in Mexico was the perfect challenge for the new GEOSTAR wedge welder from Leister. The high welding speed of the GEOSTAR wedge welder is an economic solution for the lining of heap leach pads, lakes or landfills.

With high quality equipment and friendly Leister service, users experience maximum productivity even under extreme environmental conditions.