A fresh look at temporary infrastructure

The family business brings more than forty years of experience from the festival world to the building and infrastructure industry and offers surprising and, above all, audience-friendly solutions. A conversation with founder Martijn van den Broek about the various possibilities such as temporary roads, bicycle paths, (cable) bridges and even temporary platforms.

Van Ham Infra B.V. is a still young company in infrastructure but dyed-in-the-wool in the event industry. "Both sectors have quite a bit of overlap," Van den Broek now knows. "A project in the construction and infrastructure sector is actually an event in miniature. Clients in construction and infra quickly think in traditional solutions when it comes to temporary infrastructures. As a 'new player in the market,' we try to break through that structure and, with our huge stock of products and solutions, often offer more interesting alternatives. All temporary buildings and structures can also be statically calculated by our in-house project engineers and comply with the building code."

New opportunities

Realizing public-friendly solutions is what Van Ham has specialized in for more than forty years. "We bring that knowledge and expertise to the construction and infrastructure sector, resulting in child- and stiletto-friendly bridges, platforms and stair towers, among other things," says Van den Broek. "We can create a free span of over 22 meters long with our temporary bridges, freely accessible to the public. We can provide access to the bridge or platform with stairs, as well as ramps. In this way, the temporary platforms also remain accessible to every traveler and suffer as little negative impact as possible from track maintenance. In addition, our plastic floors are ideally suited as a temporary bicycle path. The floor plates are manufactured from recycled PVC and have an anti-slip coating. It makes them an interesting alternative to steel road plates that can be very slippery in damp weather or frost. Moreover, they are also low-noise and much lighter and can carry many more m2 with one load. The floor can be laid cold on the surface, but also on a special geotextile, so that the 'floor' can also act as a temporary (construction) road or parking lot."

In a short time, Van Ham Infra B.V. has already convinced several clients in the construction and infrastructure sector of the many advantages of its extensive range. "For example, we have provided an atrium of a large hospital with a complex scaffold for system ceiling assembly, our floor plates are in great demand and we have completely wrapped a 'well-known' city hall with scaffolding material and provided it with a canvas with an image of the building behind it. Our products often offer a refreshing and interesting (read: faster and cheaper) alternative to traditional solutions. A big advantage of Van Ham Infra B.V. is that we work seven days a week. We are used to working weekends, evenings and nights. We can also provide all facilities around the festivities of the start or completion of a project, such as a tent, VIP deck, etc. So all temporary facilities come from one source," Van den Broek concludes.