Asset management specialist Oxand and consultancy and engineering firm Witteveen+Bos signed a strategic agreement to collaborate on infrastructural asset management and renewal and renovation (VenR) projects in The Netherlands. The parties share the ambition of contributing to keeping The Netherlands safely accessible, above all by sustainably maintaining infrastructural assets such as bridges, tunnels and viaducts and, in the future, energy infrastructure. With this collaboration, Oxand and Witteveen+Bos aim to further support their clients at operational and strategic levels with valuable, efficient and visually accessible advice.
In the years ahead, tens of thousands of civil engineering structures in The Netherlands – such as bridges, tunnels, locks and viaducts – will need to be renewed, renovated or made more sustainable. Many of these structures were built in the 1950s and ’60s and are in dire need of attention, presenting The Netherlands with its biggest infrastructural challenge since World War II – a huge task in which collaboration is more important than ever before.
Huge task
The challenge facing Dutch infrastructure is vast and incorporates various domains, involving a huge diversity of structures – both ‘dry’ and ‘wet’- that ranges from bridges, road foundations and noise barriers to lock complexes and tunnels. Of course, such a challenge necessarily entails bringing together a wide range of disciplines and tasks, such as data processing, materials knowledge, sustainable renovation opportunities, ensuring of structural safety, insight into availability (network functionality) and cost management (opex/capex).
Collaboration essential
To ensure the accessibility, reliability and safety of our infrastructure, all chain parties need to work together in a structured, prioritised and combined way. The pooling of expertise, services and networks by Oxand and Witteveen+Bos creates a strong strategic advantage to help clients with challenges surrounding the reneval, renovation and sustainable asset maangement of civil engineering structures for both dry and wet infrastructure.
Unique knowledge and expertise
Both parties bring unique knowledge and expertise to the collaboration: Oxand is a European leader in sustainable and data-driven asset management in infrastructure and the built environment; Witteveen+Bos complements these strenghts with specific materials knowledge and expertise on large-scale infrastructural projects.
Close teamwork
‘Our complementary profiles mean we’re able to serve the whole chain and stimulate collaboration between project and asset management organisations at process and workfloor levels. In this way, we’re bridging the gap between two ‘worlds’, explains Leonie Koops, head of Infrastructure and Mobility at Witteveen+Bos. ‘By integrating asset data, maintenance concepts and scenario-thinking into smart solutions, we’re supporting clients in making the right choices for prioritising and programming projects and maintenance.’
‘From the very first meeting in 2017, there has been a good click and symbiosis between our teams. It turned out to be the start of a unique, multiyear collaboration between our teams, areas of expertise and management. We’ve now strengthened this further with our collaboration agreement – a milestone we’re immensely proud of,’says Edwin Timmer, director of Oxand.
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