Skip to main content

Netherlands: Velsertunnel to be closed for nine months

The 60-year-old road and rail Velsertunnel in the Netherlands will be closed from now until the end of the year for major renovations. Improvements to the Velsertunnel beneath the North Sea Canal are scheduled for the road sections only, according to the Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch government’s Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, and the consortium doing the work. Rijkswaterstaat awarded a design/build/maintain contract in 2014 to Hyacint, a consortium of Besix, Dura Vermeer, and Spie, supp
April 19, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The 60-year-old road and rail Velsertunnel in the Netherlands will be closed from now until the end of the year for major renovations.

Improvements to the Velsertunnel beneath the North Sea Canal are scheduled for the road sections only, according to the Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch government’s Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, and the consortium doing the work.

Rijkswaterstaat awarded a design/build/maintain contract in 2014 to Hyacint, a consortium of Besix, Dura Vermeer, and Spie, supported by iNFRANEA. Last year the consortium completed a 3-D BIM model (Building Information Modelling) of the tunnel and of the proposed work to be done. %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Click here Visit bimontherocks.com website false http://bimontherocks.com/bim-helps-renovate-aging-tunnel/ false false%> for the presentation.

The renovated tunnel will have a 12cm higher clearance profile for trucks, new asphalt and modern technical installations, such as CCTV, fire protection equipment, traffic control systems and ventilation. Escape routes will also be fully updated.

Under the contract, the original and now iconic ventilation towers reaching skyward atop the main ventilation building must remain intact. The unusual-looking towers were listed as a national heritage site in 2014.

Around 65,000 vehicles a day use the tunnel and traffic will be diverted to the Wijkertunnel, a toll tunnel.

The Wijkertunnel is a 21-year old structure that is the first public-private partnership in the Netherlands. Three-quarters of the total €272 million construction cost was put up by a consortium of banks and insurance companies, including ING and Commerzbank. The contract was for 30 years.

Related Content

  • Trimble and Manitowoc deal boost to construction world
    February 1, 2012
    Trimble and Manitowoc Cranes are collaborating on developing technology that boosts construction lifting industry productivity, while improving onsite crane use and data management.
  • Five things road construction crews should not do
    June 19, 2015
    Sometimes you need a sense of humour to complete a task. Sometimes that sense of humour can overstep the mark and not everyone will see the joke, as these five road construction site pictures show. Here are five things that construction crews should not do.
  • Stationary asphalt plant focus for Intrame
    January 6, 2017
    Intrame is displaying its stationary range of asphalt plants with a particular focus on the control system technology. The company’s control systems allow the plant to work in fully automatic, semi-automatic or manual mode whilst providing supervision and control by means of a general use PC. The programming is totally open allowing continuous updating to improve plant operations. Systems also ensure automatic regulation of the burner with recording of the temperature of the aggregates at the dryer’s discha
  • Stationary asphalt plant focus for Intrame
    April 18, 2012
    Intrame is displaying its stationary range of asphalt plants with a particular focus on the control system technology. The company’s control systems allow the plant to work in fully automatic, semi-automatic or manual mode whilst providing supervision and control by means of a general use PC. The programming is totally open allowing continuous updating to improve plant operations. Systems also ensure automatic regulation of the burner with recording of the temperature of the aggregates at the dryer’s discha