Jacques Delens, a BESIX entity, has been awarded a contract to refurbish the office areas in the European Parliament buildings in Brussels. The works, to be carried out in partnership with CIT Blaton, consist of renovating the overall finishes.
This important contract poses many challenges. The first is the particular feature of having to complete the whole job in just 4.5 months.
During the peak contract period, the teams will be renovating up to 700 offices simultaneously. For each office, this includes, in addition to inventorizing and protecting the equipment remaining inside, dismantling and evacuating the fixed furniture, replacing light fittings, wall vinyl and carpeting, painting the ceilings, installing new wiring and making changes to the floor boxes. Last detail: for each zone of around 140 offices (between 100 and 180), all operations, from dismantling to provisional acceptance, must be carried out within 5 weeks.
In a few key figures, all told, this adds up to 2,200 offices, approximately 53,000 m² of carpeting, 80,000 m² of wall vinyl, 30,000 m² of ceiling repainting and replacing 2,000 light fittings.
The second particular feature is security. The European Parliament is naturally a highly sensitive place. Access zones to the site are protected by security agents and equipped with X-ray conveyor belts and security gates. All incoming material has to be verified. Dogs are also present to sniff out any potential explosive substance.
Third challenge: the site, at the heart of a particularly congested neighbourhood, has no delivery area. Deliveries must be carefully planned and executed. Added to this is the ban on using the indoor lifts, which requires teams to place many external hoists and lifts.
This is not the first time the group has worked on this site. Jacques Delens and BESIX are well acquainted with the European Parliament, having helped build the Parliament buildings proper, the Espace Léopold, and the Wilfried Martens building.
