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With the approach of developing the greenest road in Brabant, the design team brought together the various requirements of all stakeholders into a balanced road design. Geonius' input, however, goes much further.
"In terms of guidelines, the New Link N69 is an area connector road where you can drive 80 km/h. But it has the appearance of a through road with a green median strip, wide side verges, flyovers and junctions," begins Henri Latour, infra design manager at Geonius. "That is also immediately the biggest challenge: finding an optimal balance between both 'worlds'." In addition to the road design, Geonius was also responsible for the water management design, geotechnical advice, dimensioning work and GWW design lead. The complete picture with the exception of the structures.
The New Link N69 is thus rightfully an interdisciplinary project for Geonius. "The fact that we have many disciplines at our disposal makes us flexible and able to switch quickly across disciplines to exchange, for example, drawings, designs and visualizations," Latour explains. Geonius has been involved in the project since the tender. "We were asked by Boskalis to participate in the tender. After being awarded the contract in September 2018, we then energetically started working on the Preliminary Design, Final Design and finally the Implementation Design. Prior to the actual implementation of the New Link N69, the existing route of the N69 to the Belgian border was reconstructed on the south side with new road verges, reconstructions of intersections, a new coating for the asphalt, and so on. We did the complete design for that too."
Regarding the integration of the road design on the structures, Geonius worked intensively with Nobleo, responsible for the design of the structures. A visualization was also created in collaboration with Boskalis so that the route could be visually experienced and tested as early as the design phase. "There are also challenges in the design of the water management," Latour knows. "The complexity lies in the task of making it hydrologically neutral. The construction of the road and structures must not lead to a change in the groundwater balance. So additional measures must be taken such as the construction of culverts to direct the water in the right direction. There is also plenty of attention to flora and fauna, resulting in, among other things, gentle slopes and animal-friendly banks."
Except for a few remaining items, the project is complete for Geonius. "And, of course, we assist our client with advice and assistance for any questions during implementation," Latour concludes.
