Contract awarded for building Scheldt tunnel

This tunnel will form part of the Antwerp Ring Road project that is aimed at improving the traffic flow around this strategic port and city. The project developer responsible for the prestigious ‘Oosterweel link’, LANTIS, has awarded the contract for the construction of the Scheldt tunnel to the Tijdelijke Handelsvereniging Combinatie Oosterweeltunnel (THV COTU) consortium. This consortium is composed of the construction groups DEME, BESIX, BAM Contractors and Jan De Nul, and the total contract value is €570 million.

The tunnel will be formed by constructing concrete sections which will then be floated to the tunnel site and submerged into a previously dredged trench in the river bed. This is a well tested construction system but the Antwerp site poses considerable challenges because of the current and tides in the river. The tunnel will be angled across the river and will consist of 8 tunnel elements, each of which will weigh approximately 60,000 tonnes.

These tunnel elements will be constructed at a specially prepared site located in the inner port of Zeebrugge. Once completed and floated these tunnel elements will then be towed to Antwerp via the North Sea and along the Western Scheldt. Once on site they will be immersed into a pre-dredged trench in the River Scheldt in Antwerp. The units are some of the largest that have been used for this type of tunnel construction with each side of the tunnel having three lanes for traffic plus a separate section for cyclists and a service tunnel in the centre.

“THV COTU is well aware of the challenges that such a project brings with it in a technically difficult environment such as the Scheldt. But the partners are confident that they have the necessary expertise and decades of experience to successfully achieve the realisation of this vital stage of the Oosterweel link project,” said a representative from DEME.

The first preparatory work on this project will start in the autumn of this year and the actual construction work for the tunnel itself will begin after the summer of 2021. No final completion date for the tunnel has been given.