Project The New N200 completed quickly and successfully
The ‘De Nieuwe N200’ project was successfully completed on 28 November 2020 by VolkerWessels companies KWS and Van Hattum en Blankevoort. In just over a year and a half, an eleven-kilometre-long new drinking water pipeline was laid between Amsterdam and Halfweg, the dyke was raised, the road was redesigned and an ecopassage was built. All the expertise that the Netherlands is so good at has been bundled at seven linear kilometres. The striking result is lower social costs and high benefits for residents, flora and fauna and road users.
Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen (Infrastructure and Water Management):
"It's good to see that this collaboration has led to such a fantastic result, because by carrying out all the work at the same time, this job has been done in a year and a half. If we had done everything one after the other, a project like this would soon take more than five years. That makes quite a difference. For the residents it's very important: much less inconvenience, much less traffic jams". Halfway through, there were a few extras: a new Boezembrug bridge, culvert and sewerage. In addition, the N200 in the village was completely redesigned with trees and greenery.
Combining results in winners
At the start of the project, the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management, the municipality of Amsterdam, the Amstel, Gooi and Vecht Water Board and Waternet all saw opportunities in the New N200 that have now actually been cashed in. Dike warden (chair of a water board) Gerhard van den Top: "The joint approach to major maintenance turned out to be a flywheel that benefits everyone. Here you can see Dutch business at its best. Not only has all the infrastructure been put back in order for a long time, with the new layout the whole area has become more beautiful, safer and greener, and more was possible than just maintenance".
Alderman Sharon Dijksma also sees this: "The change around the N200 is very important for Amsterdam. First of all, we now have a beautiful entrance to the city with the wide central reservation full of trees. The speed has been reduced to 50 km/h from the Seineweg and that gives us the opportunity to realise 3,500 to 4,500 homes near Sloterdijk-Centrum. To top it all off, Port-City, where many homes will be built in the future, will be much better connected to Sloterdijk and Geuzenveld by De Nieuwe N200 and we will be able to cope with the city's growth with the new drinking water pipeline. So this really is a win-win-win situation".
Maarten van Aller, COO Infradivision VolkerWessels on behalf of contractor combination oneN200:
"For us, the N200 is really a sweet spot for our knowledge and expertise. In terms of size, but also in terms of complexity. The greatest success for us is that we all managed to meet the tight schedule together. Most challenging was Boezembrug near Halfweg, where we had to manoeuvre on a square millimetre with girders more than 30 metres long. We succeeded and we are all very proud of that.
During the construction of the Boezembrug the first wave of corona came. We were extremely concerned about the impact on the health of our people and the efficiency of the teams. In the end, that worked out very well. By continuing to focus on the right measures and consulting well with the client, we managed to get through this very well. All in all, we have delivered an excellent performance."