A gigantic pink structure now looms above the Olskroken traffic junction in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. About the size of a small aircraft hangar or typical convenience store, it stands almost where a building's third floor would be, atop steel legs jutting up from a new railway bridge that crosses over the E6 highway. Nord-Lock® washers were a key part of erecting this grand piece of public art.
The structure, bLINK, is unlike any previous piece of public art in Sweden. It’s a permanent installation intended to last for decades, so it had to be built to withstand the test of time but also endure the unique conditions of its location.
Conceived by German artist Katharina Grosse, bLINK is the first completed piece from the Kronotopia art programme – which commissions original artworks for Västlänken (the West Link Project), a major railway infrastructure initiative in Gothenburg. Kronotopia involves artists early in the architectural process to create more unique public spaces and provide an overall artistic influence on the new railway.
In a short documentary video produced by Satens konstråd (Sweden’s Public Art Agency), Grosse explains bLINK was developed out of an interest in creating something visible from different parts of the city, but that also condensed into one place – such as an ordinary location people pass by every day.
“Where your attention could be woken up a little, where you at least expect it,” explains Katharina. “So, this idea of something flashing up in the corner of your eye and when you blink, it's passed already, but there was something… a visual sensation can happen to you, and you remember it at the end of the day, even though you have maybe seen it only for a second.”
Grosse’s final design features a steel substructure stretching almost 12 metres high, with a main section of roughly 225 square metres and covered with 10 metre wide plates of 10mm thick aluminium. All together, it weighs a total of 35 tonnes. According to Bernhard Hahner, managing director of Hahner Technik, the German firm contracted to fabricate and help install bLINK, the job presented numerous unique challenges – the most obvious being that the installation would sit over a railway bridge and a busy highway – ergo, an issue with vibration.
“With this construction, we definitely had what you can call a ‘vibration problem’," says Bernhard, referring to the constant shaking from the dynamic loads of cars and trains moving underneath the sculpture that could vibrate the structure enough to loosen the bolted connections holding it together.
bLINK is also outside year round, exposed to the elements, such as damp and briny coastal winds from the nearby North Sea that can cause corrosion and rust, as well as the rapidly fluctuating temperatures of Gothenburg’s weather that can cause metal to quickly expand and contract. What’s more, as Bernhard points out, any bolting or fastening system that could handle those challenges would also have to seamlessly integrate into bLINK’s design and not stand out in any way. Therefore, finding a solution was technically demanding.
Bernhard ultimately turned to Nord-Lock Group for the bolted connections needed to make bLINK a reality. Nord-Lock® wedge-locking washers are documented to stay secure through severe vibration and have been used in billions of projects around the world and across every industry, earning a reputation for uncompromising quality and reliability when safety is of the utmost importance.
“Nord-Lock also turned out to be the easiest, most time-efficient solution for assembly,” adds Bernhard. “We didn’t have to redesign or rethink any parts of the original design. So, it was really a plug and play situation, which fortunately did not make an already complex construction even more so.”
According to Frank Götz, business development manager for construction at the Nord-Lock Group, the model of stainless steel washers selected for the project is ideal for withstanding extreme conditions and going unnoticed. “The wedge-locking washer used by Bernhard Hahner for the bLINK project is one of the best alternatives to date for ensuring that the bolted connections do not stand out negatively due to rust buildup,” Frank explains.
Construction began not long after Nord-Lock was selected for the bLINK project. Installation took place in the fall of 2024, and the completed piece was officially inaugurated in May 2025 – with the entire Västlänken railway project expected to be fully finished by 2030.
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