Week of 21 February
1. Thank you for connecting to BESIX Radio
More than 2.000 of you listened to BESIX Radio live last Friday, hundreds of you sent songs and dedications for your colleagues, and dozens of you intervened live, on set or remotely from Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Africa. Thank you all for tuning in and making this day happen. We hope you enjoyed it. Your feedbacks, comments and ideas are now more than welcome: don't hesitate to send them to us by following this link! And we are happy to remind you that you can also relive this day in replay.
2. European significance (Latvia)
The construction of the Riga Central Station by BESIX and its partners is one of the iconic developments of the Rail Baltica project, which will integrate the Baltic countries into the European rail network. This European dimension of the project was further illustrated last week by an official visit of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, accompanied by his Latvian counterpart Egil Levits. The two presidents walked around the construction site, listening carefully to the explanations of our team and our client. This is another example of the influence of our brand in Europe. Above all, congrats to our teams: beyond these official visits, we do not forget that the project is extremely complex and demanding in every respect, both in terms of design and execution.
3. Boning half a viaduct (Belgium)
The rehabilitation of the Huccorgne viaduct on the Belgian E42 motorway has entered a particularly impressive phase with the removal of the old concrete beams from the approach spans. The 36 beams, each 30 metres long and weighing 60 tonnes, are being handled by cranes at heights of up to 60 metres. Since nothing is ever simple, it should be added that during this operation, the other half of the viaduct remains in service and carries an average daily traffic of some 60.000 vehicles! All this obviously contributes to the complexity of the work. The E42 motorway is an important route in the south of the country, linking the east and west of the Walloon Region. Congrats to the BESIX teams for carrying out this work brilliantly, which a number a Belgian journalists witnessed last week!
4. BESIX Watpac solutions for excellence (Australia)
The Wurun Senior Campus in Melbourne was officially opened in mid-February. Built by BESIX Watpac, this project is an example of solutions made in BESIX Group. First of all, it is an example of proactivity towards the client. BESIX Watpac proposed to modify the structural design, using composite steel instead of 100% concrete, which had a financial advantage. Secondly, the construction presented difficulties with the Covid-19 restrictions. But thanks to an IT innovation, a 360 degree photo software, the BESIX Watpac teams succeeded in setting up a solution allowing all the stakeholders to participate efficiently in the progress of the construction site: thanks to cameras placed on construction site helmets, sending information online, available to all, from the BIM designers to the client himself, everyone following the progress of the construction site in almost real time. All this can be seen in this video. Well done, BESIX Watpac!
And then this... How does waste-to-energy work? (UAE)
You have already heard several times about the work underway on the waste-to-energy plant in Dubai, a project that was also designed and partly financed by BESIX Group, and which we will then maintain and operate for 35 years. You may be wondering what will be installed in the plant? Well, the scheme below explains the process in a simple way. It will be one of the largest and most environmentally advanced waste-to-energy plants in the world.
