Our services
Provider
Location
- Installation of all water and drainage pipes
- Installation of an overflow system
- Installation of a hot water preparation system
- Fitting of toilets and wet rooms for the prison cells and other toilet facilities
The Canton of Zurich’s new Police and Judiciary Centre (PJZ) is currently being constructed on the site of the former Zurich Aussersihl-Hard freight yard. The cantonal police, the public prosecutor’s office and penal authorities, the Forensic Institute for Police Science, the police school and parts of the Zurich District Court, which have so far been split over more than 30 locations, are now being brought together here, with an added police and judicial prison. This will result in a new headquarters for fighting crime, which will be ready for occupation in winter 2021/2022.
«It’s not every day you get to work on a prison – and from the strict security checks on the construction site to the special installations, it’s exciting to take a look behind the scenes of this major project that will make Zurich even safer in the future.»
Facts & Figures
- Completion
2022
- Construction type
Sanitation
- Contruction style
New construction
- Branch
Public sector
- Carried work
Sanitation installations, hot water preparation, overflow system
- Project manager
Nicola Iannelli (BKW Building Solutions)
- Builder
Canton of Zurich construction management
- Architect
Theo Hotz Partner AG, Zürich
- Construction cost
570 million
- Installation cost
7.5 million
- General contractor
HRS Real Estate AG
60 km of pipes lengthways through Lake Zurich looping back around to the middle of the lake
Wherever there’s water or gas in the CHF 570 million project, BKW Building Solutions is behind it. “The pipes that we having been laying inside for three years run for 60 km through Lake Zurich and loop back around to the middle of the lake,” says Nicola Iannelli, Sanitation Project Manager at BKW Building Solutions. The 15-person team laid water and drainage pipes in the ceilings of the nine floors and installed a hot water preparation system in the institution’s basement. They also installed an overflow system that protects the building from flooding if there is a 100-year storm. For this purpose, oversized pipes with a diameter of 315 mm were installed in the ceiling of the first basement, which can transport huge amounts of water away if there is heavy rainfall. “The challenge was to lay the pipes in a way that was gentle on the material, because the ceiling is 1.20 m thick and criss-crossed with countless concrete reinforcements that make the building earthquake-proof,” explains Nicola Iannelli. “As a result, we couldn’t install the pipes straight like we usually do, and instead had to snake them in all three dimensions between the concrete reinforcements that were already in place.”
Wet rooms for 280 prison spaces
A number of wet rooms will be built on the 63,600 m2 plot, including wet rooms for around 280 prison spaces. The majority of cells have a bathroom including a toilet, washbasin and shower that have to fit into a very small space. There are also some installations that have been specially designed for prison operations, such as toilet and sink combination units, vandalism-proof toilets, suicide-resistant fittings and “Drugloo” banned substance recovery units. This modern drug detection toilet helps prison guards find and confiscate banned substances if prisoners are suspected of being in possession of them.
Working on the PJZ is a very special experience for Nicola Iannelli and his team: “It’s not every day you get to work on an institution like this – and from the strict security checks on the construction site to the special installations, it’s exciting to take a look behind the scenes of this major project that will make Zurich even safer in the future.”
