N240b Engineering services: improving road safety and bridges for the future
As part of the collaboration agreement with the Province of North Holland, Witteveen+Bos has been commissioned to upgrade the N240b north of Medemblik and to prepare two special new bridges. These will be the first fixed bridges to be designed and built based on the Industrial, Flexible and Demountable (IFD) concept in accordance with the new NTA8085. A big step towards circular bridges designed for reuse.
N240b
The N240b is a quiet provincial road along the Medemblikkervaart. This project involves major road maintenance and modifications to junctions aimed at improving the 'readability' of the road and therefore, the safety of road users. Besides this maintenance work, the four existing bridges will be replaced by two new ones.
The last section of the N240 to Medemblik is also scheduled to be upgraded. The Province of North Holland will resurface the road and redesign the junctions to improve road safety. The two bridges are also included in the plans. The scale of the project means that it cannot be carried out by the usual contractor, WaakSaam, and a separate tender process is required. Once more details are known about the plans and schedules, the Province will first inform the local community about this final part.
Existing bridges
The existing bridges are narrow road bridges with bicycle bridges alongside. The road bridges are now at the end of their lifespan and in need of replacement. As part of this project, a study was conducted into the possibilities of using the bicycle bridges elsewhere. The same applies to material released from the road bridges.
The +Reuse Quickscan was used for this study, the innovation which recently won the Witteveen+Bos Plus+ Innovation programme. This tool assesses the reusability of existing structures by performing an extensive analysis on potentially reusable objects and raw materials and quickly establishing their value.
NTA8085 IFD building of fixed bridges
Following the development and adoption of agreements for IFD building of movable bridges in the NTA8086, a new Netherlands Technical Agreement (NTA) was drawn up at the initiative of the Province of North Holland in a partnership with market participants guided by the NEN. Witteveen+Bos contributed to this NTA8085 by leading one of the interface teams, suggesting ideas and co-writing this guideline. This NTA incorporates and standardises interfaces in fixed bridges. This results in a bridge which is designed for reuse in maintenance of parts, for example a railing. At the 'end of the functional lifespan', parts or even the entire bridge can be dismantled and reused somewhere else.
Experienced team
The client valued our team for its proven experience with IFD design and contracts in the Cruquius bridge and Stolperbascule bridge projects, our contribution to the development of IFD building in civil engineering and our visible enthusiasm in the cooperation with the Province in projects as well as the NTA. We are delighted to be able to apply this knowledge to this project.
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