Working as one on the A27

Forty kilometres of motorway improvements, about fifty structures replaced and a new bridge built. The A27 Houten-Hooipolder project stands out in terms of size and complexity. This makes it all the more important to fully commit to good collaboration with all those involved.

The dialogue with client Rijkswaterstaat began during the tender. Ruben Favié, manager of the Strategic Tender Center of Ballast Nedam Large Infra: ‘At that stage, we proposed splitting up this long and complicated project. This creates a portfolio of subprojects, each with its own project manager. This way you keep it manageable. Our Ballast colleague Patrick van Os safeguards the overall coherence as the overarching portfolio manager.’

The proposal was prompted by the earlier A9 Gaasperdammerweg project. Here, Ballast Nedam and Fluor Infrastructure, then with Heijmans, had already worked together for Rijkswaterstaat. ‘We learned then what Rijkswaterstaat needs to make a project successful. Transparency is central to this. As a contractor, we want to deliver a great project and also make some profit. But how do we do that together with the client? What are their interests? Combined with our extensive experience with large projects for Rijkswaterstaat, this attitude is the key to success.’

One aspect where transparency plays a major role is cost. Ruben: ‘We carry out certain parts of the project using a two-phase approach. In the first phase, we work with Rijkswaterstaat on the design and planning. Only then do the costs and execution follow. This way the costs can be based more accurately on the current situation. The disadvantage for Rijkswaterstaat is that these costs become clear relatively late. We solve that with the cost table. Experts from Rijkswaterstaat and ALSÉÉN periodically sit down to discuss the costs. We provide full disclosure, for example about quotations from subcontractors. This transparent form of collaboration is essential to trust each other and to make the decisions that benefit the project.’

Stakeholder management, as communication adviser Hanneke Blok of ALSÉÉN knows, means making contact with ‘everything and everyone outside the construction site fence’. Hanneke focuses on local residents. ‘We explain what we’re going to do when and what inconvenience this may cause.’

Much communication takes place via letters to residents and the website and social media managed by Rijkswaterstaat. But in specific cases, an extra step is taken. For example, when in 2025 the Kerklaan in Raamsdonksveer was closed to car traffic for 12 weeks. ‘We organised a residents’ meeting about this in the neighbourhood. The turnout was quite good. We explained our choices and people understood them. To prevent heavy agricultural vehicles and buses from having to drive through the village centre, we made sure that they could pass through the closure. Careful communication helps build support. We do this out of good neighbourliness, but also because the municipality made it a condition of the permit for the closure. So good communication is simply essential for the progress of the project.’

Senior Project Coordinator Beer Poelma also looks back with satisfaction on 'The 100 hours of Hooipolder'. He calls it a showpiece, in which all those involved showed what they can do.

‘Perhaps the best thing is that a full closure was actually not allowed according to the contract. At a certain point, the project team came up with the idea that it could still be a useful alternative. I helped find out, and it turned out to be the case.’ Financially it was a good fit and there were several advantages. For example, one complete closure entailed fewer risks than the six partial closures of the A27 in the original plan. In this way, the disruption for the surrounding area was limited to one consecutive period.

Within the project, Beer works a great deal with people from ALSÉÉN partner Fluor Infrastructure. For example, together with Project Controller Joost Hartmann of Fluor, he looks back and ahead every quarter and month. ‘This concerns, for example, the quantities of concrete we think we’ll need, but also forecasts of required manhours. Do we still need a certain team here, or can they already move on to the next project component?’ That collaboration is going extremely well, Beer says. ‘This is largely because most people already know each other from previous work. So you know you can rely on the expertise and experience of the other person. And you feel: we’re going to make something beautiful together again. In the daily practice of work, I’m no longer aware of who is from Ballast and who is from Fluor. We work as one team. We live up to the name of the joint venture.’