18/03/2021

Ney & Partners designs innovative Circular Arch Viaduct, NL

From 2030 onwards, the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management wants to work in a fully climate-neutral and circular manner. This also applies to the construction, replacement and renovation of viaducts. For this purpose, they recently held an open market request: the Strategic Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Circular Viaducts. Besix and Ney & Partners took up the challenge and designed the Circular Arch Viaduct, an innovative system that is completely demountable and reusable. Compared to a conventional viaduct, the concept uses drastically fewer raw materials.
Our Circular Arch Viaduct is basically a modern version of the classic arch bridge, a centuries-old and proven structural principle. By starting from the ultimate bend-free form, the compression arch, an extremely thin arch shell of Ultra High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). Thanks to an undulating geometry in the transverse direction, this arch shell is also able to take point loads without creating tensile stresses.
If we include the environmental impact of the building materials and their reuse, we reduce the environmental impact by 52% (expressed in EQI) over 200 years compared to a conventional concrete viaduct. But above all, the Circular Arch Viaduct is a nature-inclusive and aesthetically pleasing concept with a lot of attention for integration into its surroundings.
For the Circular Arch Viaduct, Besix Nederland and Ney & Partners Nederland are working closely together with VITO, Haitsma Beton, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Resourcefull, Franki Grondtechnieken and Maurer.

share this