From culvert to new station

With the Programma Hoogfrequent Spoor Rijswijk - Rotterdam, ProRail is making the track suitable for running more trains. Dozens of modifications are required on the 5.8-kilometer route. From new station to railroad bridge, Antea Group is responsible for the design of twenty structures as well as the track and rail design. It is up to design manager Koen van Gelder to supervise this: 'Sometimes you are playing chess on twenty boards at the same time. 

"A design project at Champions League level," Koen van Gelder looks back on the past two years. In 2019, Antea Group was asked to design twenty structures for the High-Frequency Rail Program. A design package that included everything from simple culverts to the design of the most energy-efficient station in the Netherlands: Delft Campus. Koen: "With three design teams, we took all those structures, and later the track and rail design, from preliminary to implementation design in a year and a half."

Leader and connector

The design leader is both leader and liaison in this process. Koen: "My job is to ensure that constructors and designers can do their work, that it is clear which considerations are being made and how to proceed. This means that you are in constant dialogue with clients, executing parties and stakeholders. What design choices do you make, how do you phase construction and how do you arrive at a design that everyone can move forward with?"

One of the big challenges is to include all the interfaces. "This is chess on twenty boards at once," Koen says. Take the design for the 250-meter-long underpass near Rijswijk. "You sit down with the water board to think about how to give drainage a place in the design. You make choices with the contractor about how to safely combine the construction of the cofferdam with the pre-loading of the track. But you also sit down with the architect to discuss the details of the tunnel: how do you integrate railings, the pump cellar access and the tiling?"

The time factor

What complicates this process is the time factor. Koen: "The design of structures is at the front of the process so that you can apply for permits in time. Because of this, we are sometimes working on a design for months while other parties are not that far along." Then it can happen that the tunnel design does not fit seamlessly with the overhead lines, for example. "You have to have these conflicts in view early on so you can resolve them together. It's a matter of constantly staying sharp, looking along critically, communicating well and moving along."

Despite the fact that twenty structures follow their own dynamics, Antea Group's designers and structural engineers managed to complete all designs within the schedule. The good substantive cooperation with ProRail and Strukton helped. "It's nice work when you get a lot of confidence," says Antea. Now that many of the designs are in the implementation phase, the main part of the work is done. Koen: "We are now in the site engineering phase: making sure that additional questions or changes are included."

Incidentally, it was announced in late March that there will be a nice follow-up. Antea Group was commissioned to play an important role in the completion of the two previously constructed tunnel tubes under Delft station. Koen: "Wonderful that we are also involved in the final chord. We are sincerely proud that our thinking and calculation work is contributing to a world-class train connection." 

Adjustments

At least six intercity trains and another six sprinters will run on the routes of the High-Frequency Rail Transport Program. On the The Hague-Rotterdam route even eight intercity trains and six sprinters will run. To make this possible, dozens of adjustments must be made. The project will be completed by the end of 2024.