The Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) announced year-end 2009 that it had awarded the consortium De Utrechtse Tulp (consisting of Vialis/KWS/van Hattum and Blankevoort, all part of VolkerWessels, and Mourik) a contract for work on the A27 motorway between Everdingen and Rijnsweerd and the A28 between Utrecht and Amersfoort. Iv-Infra has been subcontracted to perform various kinds of work.
Inconvenience will be minimised by combining the work on the two motorways and having it performed by a single consortium. The awarding of this contract is another step in the Dutch government's programme for urgently tackling three of thirty major bottlenecks in the country's road network. Work is due to start spring 2010 and finish in spring 2013.

Improving mobility
Utrecht lies at the heart of the Dutch motorway system. Traffic jams around the city have a knock-on effect on traffic in all directions, and congestion also makes the city itself more difficult to reach. For that reason the government has accelerated efforts to resolve the bottlenecks around Utrecht.

Urgent work
The contract forms part of the government's plan to tackle road congestion as a matter or urgency. The plan embraces 30 congestion hotspots that are subject to the Road Projects (Accelerated Decision-Making) Act. This new law combined with earlier contracting will allow a more efficient approach to solving the problems and enable motorists to benefit sooner from improved traffic flows. This will be accomplished by such means as preparing for the enlargement of the A27 and A28 at the same time as maintenance is performed on the two motorways. The proposed decisions for enlarging the A27 and A28 will be made available for public inspection early 2010. There will then be an opportunity for consultation. The contract with the consortium of contractors allows for a situation where responses in the consultation round might necessitate altering the work to be performed.

Contract
A consortium made up of Vialis/KWS/Van Hattum and Blankevoort (all part of the VolkerWessels Group) and Mourik was selected from six parties after an intensive call for tenders issued by the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management. The consortium's tender emerged as the economically most favourable one based on the key contract awarding criteria of traffic, pricing, planning and design. The consortium also met the Directorate-General's chief objectives like good cooperation between client and contractor, traffic management and public-friendly performance of the work. The work awarded to the consortium is of a diverse nature. Besides asphalting it includes installing dynamic traffic management using adaptable public lighting, electronic signposting and cameras and the construction and modification of bridges and noise barriers.

Iv-Infra's role
Iv-Infra is a subcontractor of the De Utrechtse Tulp consortium and will be responsible for coordinating the overall plan plus the distinct plans for earth & roads and civil engineering works. Iv-Infra also worked for the consortium in the tender phase. To assure the essential flying start to the work, the contractor's project organisation, including the design team, began working from the Iv-Infra office in Nieuwegein in January 2010 and will remain there until the permanent project site at Zeist is available in mid-March.