Planned and industrial approach for large-scale V&R task

In the coming decades, thousands of bridges in the Netherlands are due for replacement or renovation. This will require substantial investments. Moreover, the social and economic consequences are great when a bridge is temporarily closed. This is why an efficient and innovative approach is needed, one that is above all sustainable and circular. With a broad program, Bouwend Nederland, in cooperation with partners, wants to stimulate a planned and industrial approach in ground, road and hydraulic engineering.

Municipalities, provinces and water boards face a major task: bridges, viaducts, underpasses and culverts have to be maintained, replaced and newly built in the coming years. This is a challenge in terms of capacity, but also in terms of costs. The EIB calculates the total costs for 2025-2035 for provinces and municipalities, including the construction of new structures, at 9 billion euros. In the past, often insufficient funds were reserved. So the question is: how can we best tackle this? At the request of Bouwend Nederland and the province of North Holland, the EIB conducted research into the potential of industrial, flexible and demountable construction (IFD) in the infrastructure sector.

The province of North Holland has had good experiences with industrial, flexible and demountable construction. "From now on, we will apply it to all our fixed and movable bridges," said Jeroen Olthof, North Holland Province deputy for Mobility and Accessibility, during the presentation of the IFD report at InfraTech. "With IFD we save on raw materials and design costs. Maintenance and replacement go faster, resulting in less disruption to the environment. In short, IFD is sustainable and cost-saving and most effective if all road authorities apply it. So let's do the same; jointly invest in a circular future."

Bouwend Nederland is happy to take up this gauntlet. Program manager Willemijn Visscher: "We were already involved in the IFD steering committee in civil engineering, focusing on developing the NTA 8085 for the application of IFD. Now our ambition is broader. From the multi-year programs Renewal of the sector and Mobility, we want to work with partners to arrive at a planned and industrial approach to the enormous replacement and renovation task in the infrastructure sector. IFD is part of that."

As main conclusions from the report, we see that IFD offers potential for about 3 billion euros of the total V&R task between 2025 and 2035, Visscher states. "Furthermore, IFD makes an important contribution to a circular construction economy and can contribute to shorter construction time with less traffic disruption. A planned and industrial approach requires the deployment of technology. It also requires a different way of working together. The goal of our initiative is to connect frontrunners. Together we identify the necessary changes and innovations. We will test these through pilot projects in order to learn from them. Of course we also look for governments that want to adopt this way of working. Incidentally, a number of provinces and municipalities are already actively implementing IFD, such as the municipality of Amsterdam and the province of North Holland. That may soon become more."

"The construction industry is ready to standardize more and not tackle every work of art as a unique project," emphasizes Bouwend Nederland chairman Maxime Verhagen. "A multi-year programmatic approach requires additional investments in the beginning. Apply this broadly so that market parties can recoup these extra investments. Ultimately, it leads to satisfied builders, satisfied clients and a satisfied environment. I urge clients to stop going only for the lowest price. Just put the contracts on the table, then the market can work with clients on them."