New home for Vlissingen Boatmen's Watch

The Vlissingen Boatmen's Guard is a service company in the port of Vlissingen. Among other things, they take care of mooring ships, towing pontoons and supplying ships. They are currently building a new headquarters with shed, a new loading and unloading jetty and a modified quay construction. Van der Straaten Aannemingsmaatschappij applied its expertise in foundation engineering and concrete structures at an early stage in this project.

Commissioned by the Vlissingse Bootliedenwacht B.V., Van der Straaten Aannemingsmaatschappij is realizing the concrete substructure of their new office building and shed, consisting of precast concrete beams and hollow-core slabs on foundations of precast concrete piles. "In addition, we provide the recovery of the slope after setting the piles, realize the connection between existing quay and new structures, as well as a loading and unloading jetty on steel tubular piles and a steel platform with walkway around the building, with access to a floating jetty," says project manager Matthieu van Damme.

Construction Team

The design of the substructure was created in a construction team.

Part of the construction team are Poerstamper Bouw, Vlissingse Bootliedenwacht B.V. and Van der Straaten Aannemingsmaatschappij. Van Damme: "We spent about two years in the construction team weighing up variants based on safety, sustainability, feasibility, costs and execution time. The most suitable variant was then worked out into an implementation design. We were able to bring in our expertise in the field of foundation engineering and concrete structures in order to limit the risks (both structural and constructional) and to be able to make an optimal offer in terms of costs. Within the construction team, we were responsible for conducting geotechnical investigations on land and water, working out various variants, engineering the substructure from sketch to execution design, coordinating the work with North Sea Port and preparing the execution phase."

Van der Straaten Aannemingsmaatschappij is currently driving 83 concrete piles with a length of 19.5 meters (vk 450mm) from a temporary steel platform, in order to work tide-independent.

The building is located entirely next to the existing quay structure, partly above the existing slope and partly above the water. This is particularly challenging for the piling, according to Van Damme. "The tidal effects and the lifespan of the construction in relation to the heavy environmental class (the construction is entirely in/above salt water) also require extra attention. We are currently driving 83 concrete piles with a length of 19.5 meters (fk 450mm) with our Hitachi CX700 and a D46 piling hammer from a temporary steel platform, so we can work tide-independent. In the meantime, the steel bulkheads of the platform will be moved and the holes in the slope will be repaired. Once the piling is complete, we will finish the piles to height and make the connection to the superstructure. A grid of precast concrete beams will be placed on the finished piles, which we will seal with hollow-core slabs and a cast-in-place concrete compression layer. This compression layer includes the provisions for the superstructure. As soon as the superstructure is completed, the insulation and finishing floor are installed and the project is finished for us."