Under the leadership of Prolander, the Antea Group, Arcadis, RoyalHaskoningDHV, Sweco and Witteveen+Bos are joining forces to prepare the groundwork for the Zuidelijk Westerkwartier development project. To this end, the five contract parties have combined their expertise under one roof at the Zuidelijk Westerkwartier project office.

In the Zuidelijk Westerkwartier (the southwest of the province of Groningen), environmental development is taking place alongside the development of water storage areas. At the same time, steps are also being taken regarding water quality, recreation, agriculture and landscape restoration.

For this task, an enormous number of studies will have to be carried out in a short period of time and more detailed development plans will have to be drawn up within a challenging timeframe. In order to set up an effective organisation for the design of these polders, Prolander approached all the contracting parties in the autumn of 2017 to ask them if they would endorse a broad cooperative approach for the area development project. It goes without saying that this was welcomed by all parties. However, the development of a project office was proving an arduous task before the partnership between the five offices and Prolander came to fruition. After an intensive process between the various contracting parties and Prolander, the Zuidelijk Westerkwartier project office was approved in June 2018. The project office is based at the Sweco office in Groningen. The project was commissioned by the province of Groningen and the Noorderzijlvest water board. The schedule is geared towards starting the execution phase in the summer of 2019. The work should be completed by the end of 2020.

+ engbert.van.der.weide@witteveenbos.com