Modern measurement solutions in rehabilitation of monumental bridge

The foundation of the Snoekjesbrug in downtown Amsterdam is in poor condition. This will be repaired in the coming period so that the monumental bridge will once again be safe and available for the next 30 years. Using modern and risk-controlled measuring solutions, BouwRisk is ensuring that the work will have no impact on the surrounding area and that noise pollution will remain within limits.

The Snoekjesbrug is an ancient bridge and has appeared on drawings by the City of Amsterdam since 1599. "The bridge is located in a historic environment with little space around the object. Exactly the kind of situation where smart monitoring makes all the difference," says Daniël van der Meulen, project manager at BouwRisk, who was commissioned by H. van Steenwijk bouw- en waterwerken, Mobilis TBI and the municipality of Amsterdam to take care of the monitoring work during construction. "We have been working successfully with these parties for over five years, including for the Combinatie Kademakkers, which is engaged in reinforcing the quay walls in Amsterdam."

Monitoring Work Plan

A monitoring plan was drawn up by engineering firm Witteveen+Bos during the specification phase, says Van der Meulen. "Based on that, we created a practical monitoring work plan for the various methodologies we deploy." And there are quite a few of them. Among other things, BouwRisk takes care of the XYZ measurements of quay walls, bridge, ground level and water mains. "In addition, we take care of height measurements on the properties, perform vibration and noise measurements, and do automatic sounding tube measurements. During the critical phases of the work, we also provide manned measurements to adjust immediately if necessary. Separately to this, we performed the structural surveys for the municipality of Amsterdam in the preliminary phase."

Less construction damage

Our monitoring work really reduces construction damage, with no surprises for the surrounding area, Van der Meulen guarantees. "Space is extremely limited here and this automatically brings with it risks. Based on our monitoring solutions, timely insight is gained even before the - in the monitoring plan defined - signal/intervention values are reached. We call this risk-based monitoring. Depending on the nature of the remediation work, we scale the intensity of the monitoring up and down. Should, for example, the signal value be exceeded, we still have enough safety steps built in to monitor further in detail or extra, so they don't have to stop work immediately."

CRUX Group

BouwRisk is part of the CRUX Group, consisting of CRUX Engineering, a consulting firm in geotechnical, geohydrology, soil and environmental engineering, and CEMS, a software company that develops customized applications for those same fields. "Within our group, we have a lot of knowledge and know-how about not only the subsurface, but also how to approach processes efficiently. We make grateful use of that expertise in risk-based monitoring." BouwRisk's monitoring is now fully operational at the Pike Bridge. Once the repairs are completed, the Snoekjesbrug will again be safe and accessible for 30 years.