What is in itself already quite a challenge – since operational safety must be guaranteed at all times –became even more difficult with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The normal project plan was turned upside down. Added to this was the fact that the Federal Ministry of the Interior designated the Linz-based company as part of Austria’s critical infrastructure in the fight against the pandemic. This placed a serious responsibility on the Linde plant complex, as Baier explains: “The plant is producing medical oxygen for the ventilation of COVID-19 patients in Austria and Northern Italy, so the production flow cannot be jeopardized for one minute.” Continuous monitoring is therefore required to ensure that the oxygen tanks are kept well filled. Bottlenecks have been avoided thus far, so the ASUs are also able to deliver a reliable supply of O₂ to the steelworks of voestalpine AG, the operator of the site. In order to guarantee this, Linde Austria has taken very rigorous measures to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 among its workforce. After all, only a handful of employees have the expertise to manage the entire plant complex. In addition, voestalpine has imposed strict rules for the industrial site on which around 20,000 people are employed.

“It’s a given anyway, but it was absolutely vital that our on-site LINDE PLANTSERV team would align closely with the local Linde Gas team,” according to Baier. A collaborative COVID-19 management plan was drawn up to define the occupational hygiene, safety and environmental protection measures required to prevent employees becoming infected during revamp work. “We were lucky in that we could fall back on plans that had already been developed by Linde Engineering – also in connection with the coronavirus – for a project in Singapore. That gave us a very valuable head start,” admits the LINDE PLANTSERV expert. “The difference with Singapore is that thousands of people are employed on the construction site there, so we just took these detailed documents as a blueprint and adapted them for our project.” 

The current COVID-19 management plan was then developed in conjunction with Linde and voestalpine AG. One measure was to divide the assembly teams into “pods”, each with dedicated containers for breaks and toilet facilities. It also defines how the latest coronavirus updates are communicated to employees, the hygiene measures that must be complied with, and how these alter the usual workflows. “For example, before the coronavirus pandemic struck, our experts could simply go to the control room to obtain written permission for the necessary assembly work,” explains Baier. “Now, we use a video link to clarify with the plant operator when and where we are allowed to carry out the works – and our site supervisor then delegates the various tasks to our colleagues for maximum efficiency.” Social distancing, temperature checks, masks and a sort of contact tracing diary have all become part of the normal routine in Linz. There are, however, some tasks such as welding where the employees cannot always properly maintain the safe distance of 1.5 meters. “The detailed records have since shown us that the coronavirus was closer to our Linz site than we thought. Thankfully, we detected potential contacts early and did not have any outbreaks, but are relieved we had such granular measures in place and can safely say that the extra effort was definitely worth it,” adds Baier.