Traffic management on the A2

Building movement

With extensive traffic analyses, complex phasing and intensive coordination with numerous stakeholders, Grenspaal12 is making a solid substantive contribution to the large-scale A2 project in Limburg. The collaboration builds on previous successful collaborations, including Buitenring Parkstad Limburg.

Since October 2023, co-founder Nordine Bouchiba has been involved in the widening of the A2 as senior traffic manager from Grenspaal12. “The project has a large number of traffic phases, ranging from night closures to full weekend closures over a length of 18 kilometers,” he says. “Such a closure requires intensive preparation, from traffic analyses and capacity calculations to coordination with Rijkswaterstaat, other road authorities and even foreign parties due to detour routes. After all, this is the narrowest part of the Netherlands. There is also coordination with ProRail to avoid concurrence with out-of-service work.”

Scaling up

Grenspaal12 is a consultancy in the field of infrastructure, mobility planning, project management and secondment. The firm works in both the Netherlands and Flanders with its own offices in both countries. Besides Bouchiba, a colleague is also involved in operational environment management from their secondment arm, GP12 Professionals.

DDI

One of the highlights Bouchiba is looking forward to is the commissioning of the Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) at the junction with the N297 near Born later this year. “It's a fairly unique system by Dutch standards that allows all existing directions of travel to be facilitated on one existing viaduct, so the adjacent viaduct can be demolished and replaced. Then the system is converted on this new structure and the southern viaduct is replaced. All in all, the DDI provides fewer conflict points at intersections and increased handling capacity.”

Jubilee

With its recent move to Geleen, Grenspaal12 underscores the strategic importance of the region. In addition to traffic management, the agency also offers expertise in environmental management, risk management and project management that comes in handy with the Einstein Telescope, among others. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, the book ‘Building Movement’ was also published. It explores in a narrative manner the past and future of mobility, at the intersection of people, animals and the environment. “It is precisely the dilemmas that occur at that intersection that we feel at home in as an agency,” Bouchiba concludes. Highly recommended!