"Everything from a single source" reduces coordination effort
One of several European "Army Prepositioned Stocks" of the US Army is located in Eygelshoven. Among other things, equipment and vehicles are provided and maintained here in outdoor storage areas. Since March 2024, PORR Verkehrswegebau has been constructing another concrete area as a car park on behalf of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The structure of the approximately 2,000 m2 area consists of a 5 cm frost protection layer, 30 cm gravel base layer and 28 cm concrete surface. Several lighting columns protected by impact bases were erected for the illumination.
The contract is a genuine joint PORR project. While the PORR traffic route construction team in Düren is responsible for earthworks and canal construction, the team in Osnabrück is constructing the concrete carriageway. Overall coordination is in the hands of BBGS Benelux, and PORR's central Münster building materials laboratory is also involved in monitoring the quality of the road construction materials. Francis Postelmans, Branch Manager of BBGS Benelux, emphasises the benefits for BBGS's long-standing customer: "As PORR Verkehrswegebau and BBGS can offer almost all services for this project from a single source, the coordination effort on the part of the client is significantly reduced."
High environmental and amphibian protection requirements
The entire area was previously used by a coal mine, which led to considerable soil contamination. The excavated soil therefore had to be transported and stored under the supervision of the Dutch environmental authorities. The issue of amphibian protection is also omnipresent during construction work at the Eygelshoven base. Frog fences must also be erected at construction fences, access roads must always be closed to prevent the animals from slipping through and, in addition, water from the construction process must not be allowed to enter the subsoil. To protect the bats, all work can only be carried out in daylight without artificial lighting.
