How do you build bridges over the River Schinkel?

The A10 Zuid will gain parallel sections of road in both directions, with the extra lanes intended for local traffic. To achieve this, we are adding an extra bridge on both the north and south sides of the present Schinkelbrug. At a later stage, we will then demolish the existing southern A10 bridge (which carries traffic towards the A1 (Hengelo) and A2 (Utrecht)), which will be replaced by two new bridges. All told, the Schinkelbrug will then have eight bridges: five for road traffic, two for trains, and one for the metro.

During the construction work, the Schinkelbrug must remain open as much as possible for users of the roads, trains, and metro. Moreover, the Schinkelbrug complex forms part of the Staande Mastroute, a waterway that runs from Zeeland via Amsterdam and the IJsselmeer to Delfzijl in Groningen. For this reason, the bridges have to be able to be opened at night too. It is these conditions that make the construction of the new bridges a complicated matter.

TriAX will be constructing the supports partly on the building site. ‘Here, too, space is limited, and to be able to hoist the elements properly, there is a maximum weight in place. That is why we will be pouring the concrete for the individual elements here, which we will then connect up. It will look like a gigantic container, about 2.5 metres high. Once it’s ready, we will use a crane vessel to mount it on the auxiliary construction that is attached to the piles. The reinforcements can then be added, before we fill the container with concrete. From the flat surface this creates, we then build the remainder of the support.’

In total, we are using this method to build four of these supports on our building site along the river. Two of them are for the extra southern bridge (bridge 9), and two are for the extra bridge on the north side of the present bridge complex (bridge 1). We will be driving the first piles into the ground in the spring of 2025 for the two supports for bridge 9, after which we will be placing the concrete containers on them. The process of pouring the concrete will then begin. The two supports and the remaining components of the lower part of the construction for bridge 9 are expected to be ready by the end of 2025. In 2026, we will be hoisting first the concrete girders that will form the bridge deck, and then the steel deck (the moveable part of the bridge).