The challenge
Many municipalities in the west of The Netherlands are faced with high maintenance costs for roads, sewerage systems, and planted areas. The soft subsurface (peat and soft clay layers) is often to blame. Low-maintenance roads can be built, but this requires high levels of investment. This form of road construction also has consequences for the existing infrastructure of sewers, cables, and pipelines. There is currently no integrated balancing framework for the most sustainable maintenance strategy in terms of cost and social impact. The aim of this project is to develop such a balancing framework.
Broad basis
To fill this gap, Delft, Boskoop, Arcadis, GeoDelft and Rotterdam’s Department of Municipal Works have joined forces and started a Delft Cluster project, ‘Sustainable maintenance strategy for facilities on soft soil.’ There are currently 36 participating parties, mainly municipalities from central Holland, but also utility companies and knowledge platforms such as RIONED, CROW and Energiened.
Products of knowledge
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What is it?
A refresher course from PAO.
What can we use this for?
To teach the course participants:
• The technical ins and outs of building infrastructure on soft soil
• Which elevation techniques offer the best opportunities in which situations.
• The properties of different foundation and elevation materials.
• What the extent of a groundwater study and settlement prognosis should be.
• The relationship between construction time, residual settlement, and quality of the infrastructure.
Who will be interested?
Municipal employees, utility companies, engineering consultancies and soil, roads, and hydraulic building contractors involved with the design, construction and maintenance of underground infrastructure.
More information
cor.zwanenburg@deltares.nl
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What is it?
The software model Balans provides an integrated method to balance the maintenance strategy of an existing road, including the lifecycle costs, in an objective and reproducible way. Cables and pipelines are also included in this integrated approach as the point at which investments in sustainable structures can be recouped is reached quicker if road and sewage techniques are considered in an integrated way.
What can we use this for?
Balans will in particular speed up the decision-making process for road maintenance strategies, each time using the same method. What is more. Balans can be used to show that maintaining roads built on soft soils is substantially more expensive.
Who will be interested?
Municipality officials and other professionals, such as managers of cables and pipelines.
More information
cissy.derooij@deltares.nl
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What is it?
The basis for a sound maintenance strategy is a good settlement prognosis. By placing a settlement prognosis along a proverbial measuring rod, the accuracy of such a prognosis can be determined for a specific project. This measurement rod - the Geotechnical Measuring Rod - can be used at a later stage (to act as a check) or while carrying out a prognosis, as a tool in the work process.
What can we use this for?
Municipalities can use the Geotechnical Measuring Rod to ‘measure’ the quality of settlement advice. A score (report figure) can also be calculated using the Geotechnical Measuring Rod. Five validation cases are used to determine the required score for balancing elevation techniques, and the required score to form a good settlement prediction for the final design.
Who will be interested?
Municipality officials and other professionals, such as managers of cables and pipelines.
More information
cissy.derooij@deltares.nl
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What is it?
A platform of officials and other professionals from soft soil municipalities in West Holland. The COP’s focus is on the subsurface, and the construction and management of open space. The COP meets six times per year to exchange knowledge and experience on a range of topics.
What can we use this for?
The COP provides municipality officials with a focus on shared problems, and with answers to technical questions. The COP also gives insight into the newest developments and the position of technology in the juridical, political, and managerial field.
Who will be interested?
Municipality officials and other professionals, such as managers of cables and pipelines.
More information
joris.vanruijven@deltares.nl
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What is it?
A book that provides additional information in parallel with the decision-supporting model Balans. The guideline also includes a number of example sums, and shows how they are calculated.
What can we use this for?
The guideline provides a great deal of additional information about alternative elevation measures for roads on soft soil, including indications of how they should be implemented. It also offers a wealth of information about underground infrastructure.
Who will be interested?
Municipality officials and other professionals, such as managers of cables and pipelines.
More information
cissy.derooij@deltares.nl
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Join in?
The objectives of this project are ambitious, and any assistance with meeting these aims is extremely welcome. Is your organisation still not on the list of project partners? Would you like to participate or contribute to the project and help make the maintenance problem in soft soil areas manageable? Then contact the project leader for this research: Cissy de Rooij tel. 088-3357258 or cissy.derooij@deltares.nl
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