Minister Visser gives start signal construction Innovation Strip A58

Zero-emission construction site opened; work on test site started

On September 27 last, outgoing Minister Barbara Visser of Infrastructure and Water Management performed the official starting ceremony for the construction of the Innovation Lane A58 Kloosters near Oirschot. The minister gave the starting signal together with Nyckle Sijtsma (project creator), Cees de Wijs (CEO VolkerWessels Infrastructure) and Tess van der Staak (Youth Mayor of Oirschot). The new Innovation Lane will be a unique test site for sustainable road construction and is a project of Rijkswaterstaat and VolkerWessels company Gebr. Van Kessel, in close cooperation with KWS.

Outgoing Minister Visser: 'Rijkswaterstaat builds good accessibility every day. To minimize our impact on the climate, we want to be energy-neutral and work in a circular way by 2030, while continuing to work on roads that keep the Netherlands moving. The results of the Innovation Lane will help achieve this.'

Innovation Strip creator Nyckle Sijtsma: 'It is still somewhat unreal that the realization of the Innovation Strip is actually going to happen. It feels powerful that we are all going to work on a special piece of road in the Netherlands. I hope that the experiments here will help us develop new insights for the transformation to sustainable mobility. Innovation is the way forward.'

Cees de Wijs, CEO VolkerWessels Infrastructure: 'Our good relationship with Rijkswaterstaat enables us to work together to accelerate sustainability in the Infra sector. In this project we are working with a number of proven sustainable and circular applications and innovations, such as the deployment of electric equipment, and we will also have the opportunity to test a large number of new or adapted methods. The knowledge and experience we gain from this test strip will give a boost to the ambition to work emission-free, both in the widening of the A58 but also in other projects.'

Zero-emission construction site 

At the commencement ceremony, an electric roller was set in motion, officially opening the zero-emission construction site. The construction of the Innovation Strip is entirely dedicated to sustainability. Gebr. Van Kessel is laying the strip on the basis of zero-emission. The contractor takes up the challenge of not emitting any CO₂ during the construction work on the strip. This will be done through sustainable working methods, the use of electric equipment and equipment running on clean fuels (tank-to-wheel principle).

Innovation strip A58 Cloisters

The new Innovation Strip will be a unique test site for sustainable road construction. Experiences gained here will contribute to the development and application of innovations in the A58 road widening project and other road projects. VolkerWessels company Gebr. Van Kessel is not only building the Innovation Strip. Together with various chain partners and KWS Infra Eindhoven, the contractor is also applying a large package of circular products and its own innovations. The Innovation Strip will be completed in the 2nd quarter of 2022.

InnovA58 and SmartwayZ.NL

In the InnovA58 project, Rijkswaterstaat is working on widening the A58 between Eindhoven-Tilburg and Sint Annabosch-Galder from 2 to 3 lanes. InnovA58 is a subprogram of SmartwayZ.NL, an innovative mobility program in which governments, businesses and knowledge institutions are working together to create a smooth, safe and smart mobility network. The Innovation Lane A58 Kloosters is the first subproject of InnovA58 in realization.