Ghent Sint-Pieters railway station
Soberness glass
A part of the historical railway station building of Ghent Sint-Pieters, originally built in 1913 has received a thorough restauration de past years. The platform were completely renewed. The twelve platforms were kept, but the extra platform for goods transport was removed. By doing so, the width of the other platforms could be increased with three meters. To further improve the comfort of the travellers, extra staircases, automatic staircases and elevators were introduced.
The new platform floors are partially made out of walkable glass, to allow daylight to maximally enter the below-level railway station hall. Above the platforms there is a closed canopy roof. Between the lower roofs above the tracks and the higher roofs above the platforms, a five meter area is entirely covered with glass walls. The canopy remains quite sober because the roof can’t extend above the old classified monumental railway station entrance building.
Phased approach
The renovation works of the railway station building were not an easy job, given the fact that only two tracks could be out of service at the same time and the trolley and bus traffic should remain operational during the works. Furthermore the safety of the travellers needed to be a top priority at all times.
For this reason, the railway station was built in several phases. It is only after the foundations works, the installation of cable gutters, floor slabs, steel columns and the platform structures were built, that a specialised contractor could lay down the train tracks. After this operation, the main contractor finished of the platform in collaboration with Starconstruct, that took on all glass works.
Discover our greatest showroom
As commissioned by CIT Blaton, Starconstruct could perform the engineering, delivery of materials and installation of all glass works. Our scope was, amongst others, to work out solutions for the glass floors, glass canopy cladding, glass railings, wind screens, elevators, waiting shelters, light spreading glass walls in the bicycle parking and the large glass rear elevation of the railway station. For this reason, we consider the Ghent Sint-Pieters railway station as one of our greatest showrooms.
