After more than 2 years of preparations, the works on the Oosterweel connection are moving up a gear. Contractor Rinkoniên Oosterweelknoop* started yesterday (19 August) with the installation of the first diaphragm walls for this new junction. The diaphragm walls herald the official start of the main works. The Oosterweel connection is essential for better accessibility of the port and will be ready for use in 2030.
Diaphragm walls ensure a dry construction pit
The diaphragm walls form a polder construction around the future Oosterweel connection. They retain groundwater, allowing us to dig a dry construction pit. The walls are made of reinforced concrete. We use a method with little noise pollution in the surrounding area: first we dig a trench in the ground, in which we then pour concrete. Within the polder construction we make a subdivision into seven construction pits to realise the junction.
By separating the construction pits, we can start excavating the ground more quickly and in phases. So we can start shaping the construction pit each time the diaphragm walls of one construction pit have been poured. In addition, we pour the diaphragm walls in multiple places at the same time and work towards each other. In this way, we will start excavating the first construction pits within six months, early 2025. The construction of the diaphragm walls will take about a year and a half.
In total, 3.2 kilometres of diaphragm walls will be poured to form the perimeter of the polder construction. This requires no less than 140,000 m³ of concrete. Because the construction of the entire project requires 500,000 m³ of concrete, we are building a concrete plant on site that will be operational in 2025. In this way, we produce concrete close to where we need it and we avoid our construction site transport from further overloading an already congested road network.
Complex road and tunnel project
The new Oosterweel connection is an enormously complex composition of not only on and off ramps, but also of various tunnels. The zone with on and off ramps is located in the open air and has the shape of a paperclip. This is sunken to approximately 30 metres below the field of vision. The paperclip transitions into a zone that is completely covered. Here are various types of tunnels, from tunnels built next to each other to the stacked Canal tunnels. This covered zone makes up 75 percent of the entire interchange. The Ringpark Noordkasteel will then be built on this cover.
