Headhunting, a profession in its own right

Family business Blijleven Koppensnellers has devoted itself entirely to hydraulic head cutting of foundation piles with additional reinforcement and not infrequently surprises "friend and foe" with its inventive working methods. Such was the case on the project Completion of Schiphol's dual carriageway system: viaduct.

In total, Blijleven Koppensnellers has cut 587 piles for the new viaduct over the A4 highway, among others. It ranged from square precast piles vk450 fitted with eight or twelve reinforcement bars (around 25 millimeters) to tubular screw piles in diameters of 830 millimeters with eight reinforcement bars (around 25 millimeters). "In the Netherlands, there are six pile factories with different production processes for making prestressed piles. Add to that all the different foundation piles formed in the ground in all kinds of diameters, reinforcement and hardness of concrete, and so our specialization with forty pile crackers in different shaft sizes comes into its own," says John Blijleven. "For this project at Schiphol Airport, we deployed a round, modular link cracker and a square squeeze."

According to John, the strength of Blijleven Koppensnellers lies in its expertise as well as its flexibility. "The more rebar, the more we are in our element. We're big on complex challenges and driven to come up with inventive solutions to cut heads and remove debris as efficiently, Arbo-friendly and quickly as possible." Speaking of inventive, thanks to the in-house developed CE-approved brush cutter, Blijleven Koppensnellers' pile cutters no longer have to bend their knees to cut piles. "In addition, we are the first company in the Netherlands with an in-house developed dust spray on all pile cutters. Unfortunately, the latter is not yet the priority of every contractor even though it is an obligation."