'CIP program is dilemma for many asset managers'

Many of the civil engineering structures in our country were built in the second half of the last century. Traffic has increased exponentially since then, while maintenance of the structures has been repeatedly postponed. Admittedly risk-based and responsible, but still. Because of the postponed maintenance, we are now faced with an accumulation of replacement and renovation tasks. Royal HaskoningDHV's consultants and engineers are experiencing a great deal of tension with the sustainability goals of the government-wide program 'Climate Neutral and Circular Infrastructure' (KCI).

In the Netherlands we have set climate goals by law. These goals have been elaborated for the national infrastructure in the CIP program. This program aims for complete climate neutrality and circularity in 2030 for the national infrastructure. The provinces have now also embraced the CIP program, which is implemented through the Inter Provincial Consultative Body (IPO). Nevertheless, for a variety of reasons, the maintenance of artworks in our country has been delayed. "Maintenance jobs have all been put on the back burner, except for a few iconic structures, by Rijkswaterstaat, provinces and municipalities. And we are now experiencing the consequences of that," says Bert Hesselink, Leading Professional Steel Bridges at Royal HaskoningDHV, whose work includes recalculating existing engineering structures and determining the measures to be taken. "For some structures a thorough 'polishing' is sufficient, for other objects more drastic measures are needed. In extreme cases, even complete replacement. And so now the CIP program for sustainability comes on top of that."

Up until a few years ago, the theme of sustainability, as we now see it from the CIP program, was rarely explicitly an issue when carrying out maintenance, says Peter Gosselink, Sustainability Advisor at Royal HaskoningDHV. "Now that we are on the eve of the large amount of replacement and renovation tasks, it means that asset managers also have to turn the switch when it comes to sustainability. Many asset managers tend to stick to the familiar familiar. This is in order to be sure that the object functions reliably and safely when managing RAMS objectives. However, as part of the CIP program you also want to innovate, introduce new techniques and materials and organize processes differently. This creates a great deal of tension with what is familiar to asset managers. And often the opportunities for sustainability conflict with current standards and guidelines. In my role as sustainability consultant, I enjoy this, but it is a challenge to get all stakeholders on board. Concessions will have to be made in that area of tension. Not everything we want to achieve can actually be achieved."

According to Gosselink, many existing standards and guidelines need to be revised to get closer to the common CIP goals agreed upon for sustainability. "Rijkswaterstaat and ProRail want to be fully circular and climate neutral by 2030. That ambition has also been embraced by the provinces. A nice dot on the horizon, but the challenges are enormous and time does begin to run out. In fact, some of the projects now on the program will not go into execution until 2030 or later. At the same time, the steps we can take in cultural change are small. What I mean by that is that the CIP goals for sustainability and RAMS do need to start coming together somewhere before then. Earlier this year we made a public call from Royal HaskoningDHV to start a dialogue with each other to update standards and guidelines based on the CIP goals. It's great that we're putting a lot of energy on the front end on how to get started with the goals set in terms of policy. But when we now enter the projects, we too often see that those goals quickly lose out to other priorities. Ambition erosion we call that."

In the large-scale replacement and renovation task, Hesselink says the focus is mainly on the object. "Whereas from a sustainability perspective it is much more interesting to consider the overall picture, so not only the focus on sustainable use of materials and emission-free construction." Gosselink adds: "When you renovate a bridge, it usually causes traffic disruption in the system and temporary traffic detour are necessary. The environmental impact of that is often a multiple of the replacement or renovation task itself. Especially in the case of structures on freeways, where large numbers of vehicles have to detour for long periods of time. So is renovation the smartest choice? Or do you replace the bridge early and make it higher so that the moveable part is no longer needed? The choice of materials will also have to be reviewed. For example, steel, composite and precast concrete do not require any hardening time when assembled, unlike cast-in-place concrete. Longer construction time means longer traffic disruption and even more environmental impact. These are all aspects we can calculate and highlight from Royal HaskoningDHV."

How does circularity relate to sustainability in the replacement and renovation task? "Both themes have many similarities, but sometimes also conflicting interests," Hesselink believes. "Sometimes in a design you need more materials for a future-proof solution. At first that doesn't square with the goal of using fewer raw materials and reducing environmental pressure, but future-proofing is an important criterion in sustainable thinking." In a replacement or renovation task, Gosselink also recommends considering the already existing manuals, such as those published from the aforementioned KCI program. "The CIP program is important for the GWW because a lot of knowledge and expertise has been brought together from practice. Take advantage of it."

From the circular and sustainability point of view, the gentlemen advocate a far-reaching introduction of the materials passport in business operations. "Containing information about the functions, composition, origin and use history of materials," says Gosselink. "Think of information about the coatings that have been applied or whether chromium VI is involved, etc. It should become an inseparable part of a project, so that you can consider reusing a component elsewhere in ten years' time. The Platform CB'23 has developed a nice template for this, but it has to be embedded in business operations, for data management. And our clients have not reached that point yet. Now parts are regularly released whose origin and composition we would have liked to know, in order to give them a good repurposing." That is not to say that nothing is reused at all. Hesselink: "Two years ago we upgraded a bicycle and pedestrian bridge in the Achterhoek, reinforcing the existing steel bridge with steel from a demolished factory hall nearby. The optimum of circularity. Steel is of course a super material in circular terms and infinitely reusable, taking into account its history. That's why it's so incredibly important that we introduce the materials passport properly."