Rijkswaterstaat, the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management, has started a major programme to catch up on the maintenance backlog for more than 500 bridges, locks and viaducts.

The project is known by the abbreviation KOSMOS, a Dutch acronym standing for ’joint works maintenance tender under system-oriented contract management’.

The first contracts were awarded in 2007 and clusters of projects tendered out in each province. Van der Ende was asked from an early stage to participate exclusively as the project partner in the consortium KWS / van Hattum & Blankevoort (KWS/VHT).

We have competed in the tender processes in a number of provinces. Work budgeted at over 150 million euros has been awarded to the consortium, split over a number of tenders. The consortium finally proved to have submitted the lowest offer for the “Noord-Brabant Limburg Nat” KOSMOS project.

This tender selected over 20 large properties for major maintenance work.

The key ones are: Marksluis lock no. 1, the Maas bridge at Gennep, bridges at Boschdijk, Hooydonk, Houtens, Oranjelaan and Stad van Gerwen plus the Beeksebrug and the Stadsbrug in Venlo, the weirs at Linne, Roermond and Belfeld, the Illikhoven bridge, the culvert at Groenbeek, bridges at Stein and Geulle, the lock and weir at Borgharen, the Bunde bridge and the Wilhelminabrug, and the Bosscheveld lock.

The order is for over 23 million euros, of which a substantial proportion is earmarked for grit-blasting and preservation of the said properties. It is a major contract that will be hugely challenging.

The work has to be completed by the end of 2008!