Over 4.5 months, from November 2007 to March 2008, the BELARE expedition built the Princess Elisabeth Station's outer shell and set up the seven remaining wind turbines at Utsteinen, East Antarctica.
Princess Elisabeth Station: From Tour & Taxis to Utsteinen
After the success it encountered during its pre-assembly and public viewing in Brussels, the elements of the Princess Elisabeth station were dismantled and packed into containers. They were then loaded onto a Russian ice-class cargo ship on November 6, 2007 for their twenty day journey to Cape Town where the ship refuelled and picked up fresh food supplies and twenty or so passengers before continuing towards Antarctica.
BELARE 2007-2008: First Team and First Stage
Project Director Alain Hubert and 24 other expedition members had already reached Utsteinen by plane in early November. They had brought with them all the living and working equipment they would need until the arrival of the Ivan Papanin. Using some equipment left at Utsteinen from the previous year and a fixed up tractor recuperated from the former Japanese Asuka station, the first team was able to set up the base camp, haul the containers stored at Breid Bay last year, complete the garage construction, and drill both the station's anchoring points and the holes for the wind turbines.
Before the drilling began, topographic studies were carried out on the ridge so as to ensure optimal positioning of the station. Not only was the drilling of the station's anchoring points the most important part of the first building stage, it was also the most delicate to carry out. The composition of the granite rock and the unequal disposition of the rocks made this step the most difficult to overcome.
Drilling the station's anchoring points was the toughest part of the job, but also the most important for the successful construction of the station. Drilled within millimetre accuracy, the station's anchoring points ended up being more precise than at Tour & Taxis.
BELARE 2007-2008: Second Stage
Following a stopover at 5°E to drop of members of the Norwegian expedition and supplies bound for the Norwegian Troll Station, the Ivan Papanin arrived at Crown Bay on December 14th, where Alain Hubert had been scheduled to meet the ship to manage the offloading of its cargo. The decision was taken to unload at Crown Bay, 70°S 23°E, rather than at Breid Bay (as was the case for the previous expedition), due to more favourable ice conditions at Crown Bay. It took the team 6 days to offload 120 containers filled with the elements of the Princess Elisabeth station. The route from the coast to the base camp was secured for the traverses and the offloading point at Crown Bay. As soon as all the cargo had been unloaded onto the ice shelf, the team started its traverses to transport the containers over to the Utsteinen base camp.
The containers were carried in convoys across 190km, using three Prinoth tractors and eight sledges. It took an average of 40 hours to complete a 380-km round-trip traverse, at a speed of 15 km/h. In total, 18 traverses were needed to haul all of the containers to base camp.
December also saw the last six wind turbines mounted on the ridge and the finishing touches being applied to the station's foundations and garages.
BELARE 2007-2008: Third and Last Stage
In January, as soon as the first containers had arrived at the base camp, the construction of the actual station began, while the traverse convoys continued to bring in new building supplies. The base camp was at its busiest, with approximately 40 people on site.
Building steps:
- metal struts
- wooden superstructure
- flooring
- side modules
- tower
- roof
- insulation layers
Cranes, carpenters, bulldozers, builders - the construction site was filled with action anywhere you looked. In record time, the station came together on top of the granite ridge. Despite the cold wind and freezing temperatures, the builders managed to raise the station on its pilings one week ahead of schedule.
For some of the builders, having mounted the station once already at Tour & Taxis proved to be of great help when it came to putting it together again in Utsteinen.
By mid-February, the station's walls and roof were put on and the last step of the station's building stage was reached: the sealing of the joints. In March, the base camp was shut down and the station was closed for over-wintering.
BELARE 2007-2008 team
In all, the BELARE team totalled about 60 people. And at every stage of the construction the team comprised a medical doctor/nurse, a cooking team, qualified mountain guides and first-aid team, construction teams, a base camp management team and, during the construction phase, a driving team.
More information: Princess Elisabeth Station - International Polar Foundation - SciencePoles - Belgian Science Policy Office - Belgian Army