Platform on civil engineering, underground infrastructure, energy, construction equipment & construction machinery
Rijkswaterstaat is going through a transition when it comes to its role as client for the market. It is experimenting with a two-phase approach and recent assignments, such as the A16 Rotterdam project, are being handled differently by Rijkswaterstaat than 10 years ago. Back then, as a client, we worked more at a distance: "The Market, unless." We literally left it to the market. However, from various project evaluations and conversations with the market, we learned, that that is not the way to make a project a success.
In the meantime, major changes have taken place and we face major challenges such as energy transition, climate adaptation and a major renovation task of the existing area. To achieve our goals, we will have to work differently. This also requires Rijkswaterstaat to play a more proactive role. You can make sustainability requirements in a call for tenders, but if the market is not yet ready for them, you will have to explore other avenues to achieve your goals. This requires a good dialogue in the tender and good cooperation in the execution.
Collaboration is the key to success. Not sitting in each other's seats, but working together with individual responsibility toward common goals, "Best for project." Understanding each other, looking each other up when the going gets tough. Working together on solutions, in direct, open communication. To work this way, it is necessary to develop the right mindset from both sides, client and contractor. And that takes time and attention. After all, everyone brings baggage from the past. Positive and negative experiences. This creates expectations of how things should go. If something different is expected of you, it takes some getting used to.
The task is big and the urgency is high. This means that as Rijkswaterstaat we must be adaptive: we must dare to question existing frameworks. Frameworks and standards that are still based on old technologies or experiences from the past. Participate in pilots, experiments and dare to take certain risks. This is new for us, but necessary to achieve high-level objectives. Innovation and setting new standards requires good cooperation. You can't achieve this by leaving everything to the market. Within Rijkswaterstaat this sometimes creates tension: on the one hand we want to achieve the objectives, but on the other we are very attached to the robustness of existing solutions. The first energy-neutral tunnel on the A16 Rotterdam is a good example of this. This uses new techniques that use less energy but are not yet proven technology. So that is quite exciting. By working together with the market and conducting thorough research, we can demonstrate that new techniques are also reliable and safe.
Rijkswaterstaat will have to act more as a "co-entrepreneur. Being jointly responsible for ambitious goals. Working together does not mean that you literally have to do everything together. You have to be clear about who is responsible for what, what you can expect from the other, and how you deal with risks and setbacks. Meeting each other regularly, making choices together and working together on solutions to problems that arise along the way. My vision is that we should apply this working method not only per project, but also sector-wide, as a further development of the Market Vision, Together Towards a Vital Infrastructure Sector. This is quite a challenge, but it really can be done. If we share the good examples with each other, we can learn and innovate together. I speak to many people who are proud of their work and there is great willingness to share this with each other. In this way, individuals can learn from each other and the overall sector will evolve. This will also mean running into sacred cows at times. But if you do what you did, you get what you got. And that is no longer enough.
In short: by focusing together on the task at hand and taking a proactive attitude as Rijkswaterstaat in projects, we focus on the result and prevent matters from becoming unnecessarily complex or delayed. Rijkswaterstaat focuses on the project result, not the contract. Perhaps as a contract manager I should start thinking about a new title for my current role?
