Posted on November 4, 2024
100 Antwerp students rolled up their sleeves at our Scheldt tunnel site last week.
On Thursday 18 and Tuesday 22 October, we welcomed 100 pupils from the fifth and sixth grade in Antwerp, on the site of the Scheldetunnel. Besides visiting Belgium’s largest construction site, they made formwork, could drive a mini-excavator and got to see different construction site machinery. Although for them it was not their first introduction to construction, as they all follow construction studies, however it was their first time on an operational site where they got to work themselves and put theory into practice.
The experts in the field – our colleagues – were the teachers on duty. With their experience and technical knowledge in various fields, they are the perfect profiles to show the young talents around the construction world and get them excited about a technical career.
Sharing knowledge for the future
We are helping to build a future for the next generations. We provide reliable energy on land, keep ports at depth and make cities accessible. But in addition to these operational tasks, sharing knowledge is an essential part of this as well. Both with our own colleagues as with future generations. Being allowed to immerse 100 students in our technical world at one of Belgium’s most challenging construction sites is an opportunity we jump at.
“By introducing students to our world of construction, we make their theoretical lessons tangible. Our aim is to let students experience what we do, what a company in the construction sector looks like, and what a technical job truly entails. We want to inspire them to pursue technical roles in the future, as they are ultimately our employees of tomorrow.”
Katrien Schrever
Talent Manager at Jan De Nul Group
About the Scheldt tunnel
In Antwerp, we are working on the Scheldt tunnel, the challenge of the Oosterweel link. Together with our partners from the Temporary Partnership COTU, we are building a tunnel that will connect Left Bank to Right Bank on the north side of the city and south of the port in Antwerp.
In addition to the Kennedy Tunnel and Liefkenshoek Tunnel, this Scheldt Tunnel will form a third intersection across the Scheldt. And in a crucial place, because this tunnel will literally complete the ring road. As a result, in future you will be able to drive to the port and the north of Antwerp, without having to cross or drive around the city.
What makes this project so challenging? Its size. The tunnel is 1.8 km long and consists of eight tunnel elements of 60,000 tonnes each – that’s the weight of about the same number of cars. We are building these mastodons in a specially designed construction dock in the port of Zeebrugge. Once finalised, we will float the elements via the North Sea and Westerschelde to Antwerp. There, we will sink them in a previously dredged sinker trench in the Scheldt. This technique, in which gravity and the buoyancy of water constantly compete, is one of the most ingenious construction methods in concrete and hydraulic engineering.
