Extra-thick concrete bike lanes - Heading through the Reevediep

A 12.5 km concrete path through the Reevediep - partly in the form of a cart track - is a good example. This created an attractive bicycle path from Kampen through the floodplains to the Drontermeerdijk.

The concrete paths on the new dike bodies in the IJssel Delta are intended for cyclists. Over 7 km the bike path is 3 to 3.4 m wide; over 5.3 km the bike path is in the form of a cart track. Here the bicycle path is split lengthwise and provided with a green strip in the middle. With the cart track, the designer made the cultural-historical connection with the surrounding landscape. BKB Infra was commissioned by Boskalis to realize the concrete bicycle paths.

Concrete. The ideal material

The entire bike path was given a robust construction. In order to be able to use it also with maintenance vehicles, the cart path was given a concrete thickness of 210 mm and the standard bicycle paths a thickness of 190 mm. "Concrete is the ideal material for bicycle paths," says Laurens Bogerd, project manager at BKB Infra. "Concrete can withstand a wetland environment. It lasts more than fifty years and that virtually without maintenance. It retains its shape at low and high temperatures. And the light color gives a safe feeling."

Crack guides and shrinkage joints

BKB Infra applied the concrete with a slipform paver. With this machine, the concrete mortar was compacted in one pass and poured into its final shape. To make the path resistant to shrinkage and expansion, BKB Infra applied contraction and expansion joints. Bogerd: "We placed a contraction joint every 3 m and an expansion joint every 100 m. We realized the shrinkage joints/crack inductors by cutting into the curing concrete up to a third of its thickness. The expansion or dilation joints are about 3 cm wide and accommodate the longitudinal expansion of the concrete slab. To ensure the operation of the expansion joints, they were filled with a plastic material and finished at the top with a bituminous joint filling compound."

Intersections with 'round corners'

All along the route, the bike path shows rounded shapes, even at the intersections. "With this, the architect has given the bike path a friendly look. Its implementation did require some extra attention, but it certainly has cachet." All bike paths are finished with a broom line perpendicular to the direction of travel.

"It turned out to be a beautiful sustainable work. The challenge was mainly in the logistics and the wet surface. Together with Boskalis, we had to arrange a lot to reach the work area. Thanks to the longer lead time, we were able to deliver custom work every season. Cyclists are going to enjoy this concrete path for years to come!"