Lifting the final girders for the new Schinkelbrug

Darren Helle, work planner for construction consortium TriAX (Besix, Dura Vermeer and Heijmans), has only been involved in the Schinkelbrug project for about a year. In that time, he has seen the new bridge on the northern side ‘rise rapidly out of the water’. That description is accurate: construction of the foundations for this so-called bridge 1 (see map below) began around eighteen months ago, largely underwater. Once the support structures emerged above the waterline, progress accelerated quickly. Earlier this year, we lifted 26 girders – large concrete beams – onto the eastern support structures, giving the bridge its recognisable shape almost overnight. During the weekend of 12–15 June 2026, the final 13 girders for the western side of the bridge will be installed. Helle describes this as an important milestone: ‘At that point, aside from the movable bridge section, the bridge will be complete.’

To lift the girders into position, part of the A10 Zuid will be closed from 12 to 15 June 2026. This is necessary because the mobile cranes used for the lifting operations must be positioned on the motorway itself. According to Helle, assembling the cranes is a major operation in its own right: ‘First, we construct the platforms for the cranes. These are cranes capable of lifting 500 tonnes, so they need an extremely stable base. One of the cranes will stand on the existing bridge, where the weight distribution has to be carefully managed. And that is only the beginning. To lift girders of this size – around 34 metres long and weighing 65 tonnes each – the crane also needs massive counterweights. These arrive on several lorries, and the cranes are assembled gradually using those weights.’

Once the cranes are in place, the girders – transported to the Schinkelbrug on trailers – are lifted into position one by one. This is also a highly complex operation. ‘You need a crane on both sides of each girder. Lifting them into position is really a coordinated balancing act between the cranes’, says Helle. ‘By now, we have carried out this process several times already, both for the new bridge on the northern side and for the southern side of the Schinkelbrug. I therefore have every confidence that it will go smoothly.’

Two weeks later, during the weekend of 26–29 June 2026, we will carry out the same operation for the new bridge on the southern side of the Schinkelbrug (bridge 9, see map below). Once again, the motorway will be closed while 17 girders are lifted into place on the western side of the bridge. Less than a month ago, we also installed the movable bridge section here – the so-called steel bascule section. This bridge component travelled on a spectacular journey by water from Friesland to Amsterdam. Exactly the same operation will take place again in the autumn, when the movable section for the new northern bridge (bridge 1) arrives.

Preparations are already well underway for the installation of the steel bascule section for the northern bridge, Helle says. ‘The operating mechanism of such a bridge is enormous and is housed in what we call the bascule cellar. You can think of it as a giant gearbox. We are currently completing that cellar, and everything has to fit to the millimetre.’ In the coming period, many finishing works will also take place, including pouring the concrete deck layer (a thick layer of reinforced concrete) on top of the girders and installing noise barriers and bridge railings.

The construction of four new road bridges is part of the reconstruction of the De Nieuwe Meer junction. This is needed to widen the A10 Zuid by adding two additional lanes for local traffic. The new northern bridge (bridge 1) and southern bridge (bridge 9) will be the first to be used from mid-2027. From then on, the southern bridge will serve as a bypass for traffic on the existing southern A10 bridge (bridge 10). This existing bridge will then be demolished and replaced by two new bridges (bridges 7 and 8). The Schinkelbrug is scheduled for completion in 2031.