Ministry Of Infrastructure And The Environment News

Offshore wind energy planners are giving close review to fixed-tower systems in order to extend lessons learned to floating wind towers, under development now. In the U.S., floating towers have been most closely associated with plans for new wind energy areas (WEA) in the Pacific, off of California and maybe Oregon and Washington. But important research is also taking place in Maine, at the University of Maine, because of deep ocean Atlantic areas there, and floating towers may also be used in the Gulf of Mexico.As most readers likely know…

The growing number of construction projects in the Greater Amsterdam Area has created a need for a smart and efficient method for transporting materials to building sites. In an effort to meet this demand, the City of Amsterdam, Port of Amsterdam, Waternet and TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) have launched a partnership project in Amsterdam focussing on building logistics. As part of the project, commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, the consortium partners will be facilitating the creation of a multimodal building hub in the Port of Amsterdam. The multimodal building hub will be used to redirect a maximum amount of construction traffic from the road to the water from a single point located on the water.

Rijkswaterstaat (part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the main infrastructure facilities in the Netherlands) has awarded the Afsluitdijk project to the Levvel consortium. This joint venture is formed by Van Oord Aberdeen Infrastructure Partners B.V. (46%), BAM PPP PGGM Infrastructure Coöperatie U.A. (46%) and RebelValley B.V. (8%). Levvel will be responsible for design, build, finance and 25 years maintenance of the strengthened Afsluitdijk. Construction works are expected to start in the autumn of 2018. In 2023, works on the Afsluitdijk will be completed. The net present value of the project is approximately EUR 550 million.

Right now, Rotterdam’s port area is effectively protected against floods. While most of the port area is situated outside the dikes, these port sites are elevated relatively high above sea level and are partly protected by storm surge barriers. Only under particularly extreme weather conditions will a small number of companies be affected by limited flooding. This is one of the conclusions of a recently-completed joint study that focussed on water safety in the port area: the Botlek Water Safety pilot project. This is a unique project, since it is actually the first time the Port of Rotterdam Authority, the Municipality of Rotterdam…

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) was last night named winner of the SponsorRing 2016 award in the 'Society' category for its sponsorship of The Ocean Cleanup's North Sea prototype test. A floating barrier designed to capture plastic from the sea is being tested approximately 23 km off the Dutch coast. The purpose of the test is to see how well the floating barrier design is able to cope with extreme weather conditions at sea. The SponsorRing is the annual award for the best sponsorship cases in the Netherlands. The jury commented: "An extremely brilliant case and an outstanding fit. The preconditions for a future societal impact have been met and the internal sponsorship activation was strong.

The Shipbuilder Sustainability Knowledge Base has been presented on sustainability day (10-10) to Salima Belha (member of the Dutch parliament) and Brigit Gijsbers (director of maritime affaires at Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment). The Dutch trade association Netherlands Maritime Technology (NMT) collected over 175 sustainable maritime solutions and selected 10 examples to spotlight in a sustainability maritime brochure. Among this 10 highlighted examples the Shipbuilder Sustainability Knowledge Base can be found. Geert Schouten, director at Shipbuilder: “Our vision is that knowledge is key to the success for a sustainable operating chain of builders, suppliers and owners. Therefore we have enabled a Sustainability Knowledge Base in our software.

On October 10, 2016, during the Dutch national Sustainability Day, on board of the MS Borelli, a barge that has been converted with electric propulsion, the 178 sustainable maritime solutions powered by the Dutch and collected by Netherlands Maritime Technology (NMT) have been presented. The solutions were handed over to Salima Belhaj (member of the Dutch Parliament party D66) and Brigit Gijsbers (Ministery of Infrastructure & Environment). With this number of solutions the Dutch maritime technology sector shows it can compete against various social challenges. Meteorologist Margot Ribberink from the Meteo Group (member of the association NMT) showed the consequences of climate change, such as the rise of sea level and hurricanes.

As of July 1, shippers and freight forwarders are required to verify the weight of a container before the container is loaded onto a ship. The Netherlands’ Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment recently published the Dutch interpretation of the international regulations. Partly on the advice of Transport and Logistics Netherlands (TLN), freight forwarders association FENEX, shippers’ organization EVO and export association Fenedex, the Dutch government has opted for a…

The Port of Rotterdam Authority is going to redirect approximately 4km of the port (or first) section of the Betuwe Route. As a result, the railway line will no longer run over the Caland Bridge, so that shipping and rail traffic will cease to get in each other’s way from 2020 onwards. It will also bring an end to the noise nuisance caused by the rail track near the village of Rozenburg. Construction of the new route will cost around €275 million. The Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment is contributing over €100 million…

BMT ARGOSS, (BMT) a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has secured a new contract with Dutch-based engineering consultancy, Witteveen+Bos (W+B), to provide specialist knowledge for the new ‘stay overnight’ harbour near Giesbeek, along the IJssel branch of the river Rhine. The new harbour is part of Rijkswaterstaat’s (the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment) aim to develop a number of similar resting facilities for inland vessel crews on the river Rhine, the most important inland waterway in Western Europe.

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) has emerged as the best submitter of the tender to reinforce over 33 kilometers of dike around the Markermeer lake between the towns of Hoorn and Durgerdam, the Netherlands. This was announced by the Hollands Noorderkwartier district water board (HHNK). The project will be structured according to an alliance contract form under which HHNK and Boskalis with its partners will work together to design and construct the reinforcements to ensure the safety of the Markermeer dikes for the next 50 years. In the coming months Boskalis and its partners will collaborate with HHNK on a follow-up study commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. The actual contract award is expected mid-December.

Good connections between seaports and the hinterland are vital for optimizing the logistic chain. The Port of Rotterdam Authority and the Bayernhafen Gruppe are therefore working together in the ‘Bayrolo’ research program. The aim of this cross-border project is to further improve intermodal container transport between Bavaria and the port of Rotterdam. By taking containers off the road and shipping them by barge and rail, cargo flows will be able to continue growing and the port of Rotterdam will be able to offer the German inland ports an alternative seaport.

The Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), has chosen Kongsberg Norcontrol IT to deliver a state-of-the-art RADAR surveillance system for the Volkeraksluizen, Europe's largest and busiest inland lock complex. Volkeraksluizen serves as an essential junction in the waterway connection between the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. It is not only Europe's largest and busiest inland locks but also the world's largest inland locks, with over 240 million tons passing through each year. "Volkeraksluizen is a vital link in the Netherlands waterways," said Wiebe Schmitz, KNC Sales Manager, Netherlands. The system will use Kongsberg's next generation C-Scope System to monitor vessel traffic in and around the Volkeraksluizen and to pilot ships into the locks.

The Netherlands maritime sector has fared relatively well despite turbulent conditions brought about globally by 2008’s financial crisis. The country’s marine businesses combine for an annual turnover near $25 billion, compiling upwards of 2.5% of Dutch earnings. Maritime Reporter explores the Holland maritime cluster, its businesses, trends and outlook. A seafaring nation for more than five centuries, the Netherlands has a deep-rooted nautical history with a strong commercial connection to the seas.

New public policy priorities, government support and legislation for navigation on inland waterways in Russia, as well as fleet modernisation and waterways infrastructure will be discussed during the conference ‘Russian-Dutch Bilateral Year 2013: the Strategy of Water Transport’. Key speaker during the conference will be Viktor Olersky, deputy Minister of Transport. The conference takes place on September 24, 2013 in pavilion 7 of the Lenexpo in St. Petersburg. The conference will be co-chaired by Mr. Olersky and Siebe Riedstra, Secretary General of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. Speakers include Mr Konstantin Palnikov (Director of Department of State Policy of Maritime and river transport…

Wärtsilä and CEVA Logistics were recognized for their successful efforts to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% at Wärtsilä's warehousing operations. The two companies have been named as winners of the Lean & Green Star Award 2013, a program aimed at encouraging businesses and government bodies to move to a higher level of sustainability by taking measures that not only yield cost savings, but at the same time reduce the burden on the environment. The achievement has been made possible thanks to the combined efforts of CEVA and Wärtsilä.