The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics required the construction of new facilities to host many of the competitions. One of those was the Whistler Sliding Centre track to host Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton events. This project included construction of a new 1,700 m competitive combined sliding track segmented into luge on1491 m, bobsleigh and skeleton on 1450 m, refrigeration facilities, support buildings and an access road. Construction began in June 2005 and the facility became operational in December 2007.

The supply of non-potable water is a critical infrastructure system. Large quantities of non-potable water are used for track ice making, as well as fire protection for the venue on the mountain. Water has to be able to flow despite a failure in any control system component. Pumps located at the base of the mountain fill a reservoir 600 ft. higher near the Sliding Centre via pipeline. The reservoir was designed to provide water under gravity feed so that power or pump failure would not affect supply for a period of time.

Western Integrated Systems was brought in to provide a redundant pump control system for non-potable water pumps, reservoir level control and security.

The system was designed to run fully automatic with provision for fully manual over ride. A redundant system was needed to provide assurance of availability. No single equipment failure was to prevent reliable supply of water for ice making or in the event of a fire.

Water is pumped 600’ up to a Sliding Centre reservoir on the mountain where it is gravity fed into the ice making and fire suppression supplies.  Power or equipment failure will not prevent the flow of water for a period of time.

2 Rockwell Micrologix 1100 PLCs handshake via N-Tron 305FX Fibre Optic Ethernet switches to operate the pumps to fill the reservoir and monitor security.

1 PLC is located at the reservoir for ultrasonic analog level, discrete float switch and security intrusion inputs.

A second PLC controls 2 pumps at the base of the mountain. 2 pumps are required to provide duality in the event one pump fails. Pumps are used in alternating start duty to exercise both to ensure even wear, and provide redundancy.

2 Rockwell SMC Flex Soft Starters control the 2 60 Hp pumps.