Complexity of Juliana Canal requires flexibility and quick action

They call themselves the founding fathers in civil engineering and always see soil as the basis for something beautiful. So too in the Juliana Canal. The team of FL BV, part of the Reyrink Group, was asked by Van den Herik-Sliedrecht to think and work as a partner in the realization of work area North. A challenging job in which flexibility is a must, according to project leader Pieter Quekel.

'Can you think along in how we can jointly organize the work in section North of the Juliana Canal?' This question was put to FL BV a year ago by Van den Herik. "We are not strangers to each other," explains Pieter. "From the past, we are earthmoving partners of Van den Herik. For example, we are jointly in a partnership called Dijkgenoten, where we realize dike reinforcement projects, and we have carried out, among other things, the Maxima Canal near Den Bosch. If we look specifically at section North of the Juliana Canal, we can say that this is a large and complex part of the canal. At the time we were approached last April, little was known about the soil conditions. Soil surveys were still in progress while we already had to draw up a plan for the work. Where normally a year of preparation would precede, there was only about four months for this job." 

Polishing and adjusting

Together with Van den Herik, FL BV drew up a plan for box North. "With this we had the basic tactics in place. Later, the earth-moving companies Ermers and BC van der Vis also joined to help support the large deployment of equipment and the realization. As the work progressed, we received new information and insights. It was therefore constantly fine-tuning and adjusting the plan." An example is the amount of sludge that had to be removed. Through soil surveys, the amount had been clarified, but in practice it turned out to be more than expected. "The enormous amount of sludge that had to be moved in a relatively short time certainly made it challenging. That makes you have to be very flexible in planning and scale up quickly when needed." 

Bentonite mats laid with enricher

Another great example of a new insight is the roll-out of bentonite mats. These mats, about 2 centimeters thick, provide a waterproof layer at the bottom of the canal. "To make the Juliana Canal waterproof, we rolled out about 180,000 m2 of bentonite mat in section North. The plan was that we would pull up the rolls with an excavator standing on top of the embankment. However, we did not have enough room to move on the dike to do this. So we reversed the method. An enlarger on the bottom of the Juliana canal unrolled the mats from bottom to top. This kept us busy for several weeks."

Pieter is pleased with the collaboration. "It is a large team with many parties with different insights. It is also a very intensive collaboration given the short lead time. You work closely together and have one important initial goal in mind; the opening of the Juliana Canal to shipping."