'A good product sells itself'

The renewed N395 will be lit with lighting masts from Valmont Netherlands. The type and even all the documentation of the specific Cormoran masts was already included in the specifications by the municipality of Hilvarenbeek. "A good product sells itself," says Gerard Raes of Valmont Netherlands. "And also a nice compliment for us that we have our communication in order."

Valmont Structures designs, manufactures and distributes products for infrastructure. "Our portfolio includes a wide range of lighting poles for streets, public areas, parking lots, highways, industrial sites and sports complexes. We also supply telecom masts and electricity masts," Raes explains. "Upon request, we also design and install 'specials,' such as extremely high lighting masts at airports, container terminals and industrial areas, for example, as well as custom structures for bridges and locks. The fact that the Cormoran masts ended up in the N395 is thanks to our brochures."

Design and design teams

Valmont's various branches worldwide employ designers and designers who support customers with design questions. "From this, fantastic designs regularly emerge," Raes knows. "These teams also work together to develop new products. All these products are included as standard in our catalogs, which we distribute worldwide and from which urban planners, architects and specifiers can draw. So this has also happened on the N395. In September 2020, we were approached by BAM Infra Netherlands to supply 91 pieces of Cormoran pylons. The choice of design and the desired mast height of 6 meters had already been determined by the municipality of Hilvarenbeek. On this basis, BAM Infra Nederland drew up the lighting plan. This showed that a single outrigger of 1 meter was sufficient for the desired light image."

Signage masts

The 91 Cormoran masts were produced at the factory in France and delivered to BAM Infra Netherlands last July. "The masts have since been in temporary storage at the project and are being installed in phases. We have also delivered several traffic masts of the signage masts type combined with public lighting. These masts, unlike the Cormoran masts, are 8 meters high. By the way, all masts are modularly adaptable and available as standard in different heights and variants, with single or double outriggers, in a high-low combination and you name it. For the N395, we actually hardly had to give advice. Our catalogs did their job."