The Markthal is the first covered market for fresh produce in the Netherlands and is inspired by food markets in Stockholm, Barcelona and Valencia. Apart from the food market, the hall also accommodates cafés and restaurants, shops, over 200 apartments and an underground car park for 1200 cars.
Project characteristics
Use of our expertise
Before the construction of the Markthal could start, an underground car park had to be constructed first. This job was largely the responsibility of Martens en Van Oord. At an early stage, MvO together with consortium partner Mobilis and the client Provast went looking for smart solutions through discussions held within a construction team.
Wet excavation
For constructional reasons, the soil is usually excavated wet when constructing deep underground car parks. This car park would be 12 to 13 metres below sea level. This required a specialist way of working.
When Mobilis had finished driving in the 2,212 piles and had installed the bracing frame, Martens en Van Oord started the excavation work. The construction pit was 123 x 90 metres in size. In order to excavate the first layer of dry soil down to 2.5 metres below the bracing frame, two sand embankments were made on the frame. By working from the sand embankments, archaeological research could also be performed throughout the construction pit as well. In late December 2010, the construction pit was filled with water and the wet excavation could start.
Pontoon
A pontoon was designed and constructed that is wedged between the combi-walls and can be moved by means of winches. The winches were kept under a constant load to keep the pontoon stable. A total of 92,000 cubic metres of wet soil were excavated.
Advanced equipment
In order to work as accurately as possible, advanced equipment was used. For the positioning measurements – the excavation work had to be performed between piles that had already been driven in – both the American and Russian satellite systems were used. The cranes were also equipped with a PDS-2000 machine tracking system, which measures and records movements in real-time to prevent anything from being damaged in any way.
Thickening and removal
As wet soil is much heavier than dry soil, the soil was first loaded into a container in which the water was allowed to drain out. From the drainage container, a material handling machine was used to load the soil onto a lorry and remove it. Apart from wet soil, sludge was also removed from the construction pit. This sludge was first thickened with polymer (a binder) before being removed.
The final 11,000 cubic metres of clay and peat were brought up with a so-called cutter suction dredger.
Underwater concrete
After installing 480 tonnes of reinforcement, 16,000 m3 of underwater concrete was poured for the foundations of the Markthal in October 2011. After the concrete had hardened and the water had been pumped out of the construction pit, work could start on the superstructure. The entire project was completed in 2014.
Corné supervised the entire process. Please contact him or let him know what he can do for you in the form below and he will call you back or email a reply.
