Week of 14 March
1. Impressive lifting in Abidjan (Ivory Coast)
The construction of the Abidjan Convention Centre continues. Our teams recently completed the installation of a key element of the building's upper structure. To do this, they lifted a 38-tonne element, which was then connected to the rest of the structure already installed. This impressive operation started at 9am and finished at 7pm. The timelapse of the operation can be seen in this video. Congratulations to our Ivorian teams!
2. A nose? “A cape, forsooth! ‘Tis a peninsular!” (The Netherlands)
Dutch drivers on the motorways north-east of Rotterdam were left breathless. Above the motorway, a huge blue cantilever steel structure has recently appeared. It is in fact the launching nose for the construction of the 400-metre long Terbregseplein viaduct. This viaduct is part of the Groene Boog, the new 11-kilometre motorway link that BESIX NL is building between the A16 and A13 motorways.
The viaduct that BESIX NL is building passes over important motorway. In order not to disrupt the already congested traffic north of Rotterdam, the De Groene Boog consortium opted for a construction method called the “Incremental Launching Method”. First, behind the North abutment, BESIX NL is building the segments of the deck, each about 30 meters long. Each segment is cast in relation to the previous one and prestressed. The superstructure is then pulled over a distance equal to the length of the segment, a process that is repeated for each segment until the bridge reaches its final position. "I hope the engineer who did this calculated it right," wrote one user on Twitter. We can reassure him: detailed calculations were carried out to ensure the stability and deformation of the steel nose. On-site monitoring also confirms that the behaviour of the bridge is as expected. Our engineers used a special calculation program that takes into account all the construction phases and time-dependent effects (creep and shrinkage which are specific to concrete).
But what is the purpose of this launching structure? It is connected to the front of the very first segment in order to have a light structure to reach the intermediate concrete piers by limiting the internal stresses in the concrete structure of the cantilever bridge.
The construction is now being brilliantly carried out by BESIX NL, in close cooperation with BESIX Engineering. The operation will continue progressively until the end of 2023: motorists will therefore still have many opportunities to observe the launching nose, which will gradually progress over the next few months, as the bridge segments are pulled into their final position!
3. 12 months in 1 minute (Australia)
In Melbourne, BESIX Watpac is constructing the Saint Teresa of Kolkata building for the Australian Catholic University. This is a 13-storey project with sports fields on the roof, plus 7 underground floors. The last 12 months of work have been filmed and are summarized in a 1 minute timelapse that we invite you to discover. The project also integrates a historic building, above which it adds three floors. The safety of students and staff being a priority, the installation of the heavy structures on these levels took place during the summer, when no one was on campus. Keep up the good work, we all look forward to the final result!
4. A local energy community (Belgium)
In Hal, Belgium, farmers and individuals are joining forces to make better use of locally produced green electricity. Many have individual photovoltaic installations: the problem is that the electricity is not always used when it is produced, forcing them to sell the surplus to the grid at a low price when production is high and to buy at a high price when the panels do not produce enough. For example, pig and poultry farms use a lot of electricity during the day, while for households and dairy farms the peak is in the morning and evening. The solution is Halnet, a local energy community that 70% of the city's residents have joined. It will enable much more efficient use of locally produced green energy, thereby significantly reducing dependence on the grid. Thanks to Halnet, a quarter of the electricity consumed in Hal will come from local photovoltaic installations. As a result, users' energy bills will be reduced. Halnet will also use part of the profits to install new PV installations in one go, thus reducing installation costs. The implementation of the project has now started, with the measurement of energy flows.
But what does this have to do with BESIX Group? It turns out that the solution was developed by aug∙e, the smart building applications platform created by the group and Proximus, and one of whose flagship services concerns local energy communities! A great way to better produce and consume local green energy: with aug∙e, BESIX Group is part of the solution.
And then this... An award for our Polish team
This is a great recognition for our teams working on the Vistula Spit site. BESIX and its partner NDI have been awarded the Execution of the Year Award by the Polish Intrastructure and Construction 2022 jury. The award was presented to the project on 9 March, in recognition of the quality of the management and execution of the project, which is on schedule and has progressed well throughout the past year, despite its technical difficulties and the sometimes difficult weather conditions in northern Poland.
