Week of 3 October
1. 500 column in washed concrete (Belgium)
A fantastic milestone on the project site Mediasquare (Brussels, Belgium) for client RTBF has been reached last week. Our teams have cast the 500th and ultimate column in washed concrete, precisely 1 year after casting the first one! Washed concrete is a decorative method of finishing concrete. Its implementation is a bit technical. Once the concrete has been laid, the surface is directly rinsed with water at high pressure in order to remove the layer of laitance and reveal the layer of aggregates. The end result is a concrete with a gravelly appearance. 500 aesthetic piles (some up to 12 m!), cast in a single phase, over exactly one year: who can beat that?
2. Grand Egyptian Museum: huge milestone set by the BESIX-Orascom JV (Egypt)
Last week, our colleagues of the JV BESIX-Orascom Construction have had the honour once again to have the visit on the iconic GEM project of H.E. Mostafa Madbouly, Egyptian Prime Minister, H.E. Mr. Ahmed Eissa, Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Major General Atef Moftah, the General Supervisor of the Museum, and Mr. Osama Bishai, CEO Orascom.
Major General Atef Moftah reviewed the latest developments and the percentages of completion. He stated that the total completion rate of works in the main building and the general site reached 99.8%! Here’s a summarised overview of areas that have already been taken over so far by the Client: the parking, conference centre, restaurant area and food court, the Solar Boat building, the entrance courtyard, the pizza with the hanging obelisk, the gardens, the ticketing area, the already world-famous grand stairs and King Tut dominated ground floor, as well as part of temporary exhibition areas.
Amazing progress by our colleagues! Congratulations & good luck for the remaining areas to hand over (eg. children museum, King Tut gallery and various other exhibition areas).
3. First pile for the new control centre in the port of The Hague (The Netherlands)
Last week, City Council representatives as well as representatives of the JV Vialis-BESIX NL have symbolically driven the first pile for the new control center in the Northern part of the port of The Hague. The current control center, also known as 'the Semaphore', dates from 1953 and was originally intended only for shipping guidance. Over the years, the operation of various tunnels, bridges and bollards in The Hague has also been accommodated in the control center. Because there is no room for expansion in the Semaphore and the layout of the building no longer meets current standards, it was decided to demolish the Semaphore and to realize a new and future-proof control center at the same location. The new building by BESIX NL will be ready by the beginning of 2024.
4. Belgian economic delegation on the 46th floor of Tower Mohammed VI (Morocco)
Pascal Smet, Brussels Minister of Mobility and Public Works, travelled to Morocco last week, accompanied by an economic delegation of the Brussels Region. One of the much-awaited appointments of the delegation was a stop in Salé (Rabat) for a guided tour of the Tower Mohammed VI. The Minister and the delegation went to the 46th floor to enjoy the breathtaking view on the valley and visited the show rooms of the future hotel. Many thanks to the colleagues who guided the delegation!
And then this... BESIX rules the waves (The Netherlands)
BESIX was proudly represented at the Dredging & Marine Regatta 2022 in Willemstad (The Netherlands) on Saturday 10 September. A handful of colleagues came together to enjoy their passion for sailing and rode the waves on sailing boat Sazanami. It was a nice opportunity to catch up with peers within the dredging industry, such as Jan De Nul, DEME, Boskalis, Van Oord.
