Ballast Nedam: Sustainability Made Concrete at TU Delft Parking Garage

Last November, Ballast Nedam Park & Connect completed the parking garage on Rotterdamseweg for TU Delft. This garage which has 450 parking spaces, and will be expanded with a further 150, is a major step forward in circular, scalable, biobased, climate-adaptive, and nature-inclusive construction and will fall in line with TU Delft's aim to have a fully circular and CO2-neutral campus by 2030.

Circular Parking System

Primary raw materials for traditional building materials such as concrete and steel will run out at some point. It is expected that these materials will also become more expensive. This makes the reuse of steel and concrete increasingly interesting. For that reason, we legolize the construction, so that a construction can be taken apart again, as it were, like a Lego construction.

Ballast Nedam developed the standardized remountable parking garage concept ModuPark 15 years ago. 98% of the garage above the foundation can be reused at another location. There are already several second-hand Ballast Nedam Park & Connect car parks in the Netherlands. After P-Sports, the parking solution at Rotterdamseweg is the second circular parking garage for TU Delft. Both garages are new, but the latter has a ground floor fitted with recycled concrete pavers. In addition to sustainability, flexibility and financial arguments can be reasons for choosing a demountable garage. Should the garage later have to make way for another function, the residual value of the parking garage (depending on its age) can cover the costs of demobilization. This is cheaper than demolishing and disposing of a parking garage. Sustainability is financially interesting!

Sustainable and Climate-Adaptive Building

Not only is the construction of the circular parking garage sustainable, but so is the use of the garage itself. The garage on the Rotterdamseweg requires little energy, because there is natural ventilation and daylight entry and because LED lighting is used. Solar cells will be placed on the roof of the parking garage and they will generate energy for the lighting and installations of the garage, charging electric cars, and for other TU Delft facilities.

In addition, it is important to take measures for biodiversity and the changing climate with increasingly extreme weather conditions within the living environment, which is becoming more crowded with buildings. The parking garage for TU Delft is yet another step in increasingly nature-friendly and climate-adaptive construction. The facade is made of wooden cassettes and slats, with tension cables in between, along which climbing plants can grow. Between the slats are boxes for birds, insects, and bats. After the construction of the second phase, a green strip on the roof edge contributes to the cooling of the building and the absorption of rainwater.

Reducing CO2 and Using Primary Raw Materials

The use of wood in construction makes it possible to build with minimal CO2 emissions. Concrete production is responsible for 7% of the world's CO2 emissions, while wood "production" absorbs CO2 instead of emitting it. If we use wood, we store the absorbed CO2 for a long time. However, new trees will of course have to be planted. The Accoya wood used in the facade for TU Delft will last for 50 years and will capture 60,000 kg of CO2. This compensates for a large part of the emissions that arise during the production of the steel and concrete used in the garage.

Circular construction alone is insufficient as a measure to become less dependent on primary raw materials. After all, the growth in the number of parking garages is greater than the availability of second-hand parking garages. By using bio-based building materials, such as wood, in new construction, new parking garages will also become increasingly sustainable in the future.

Sustainable Collaboration

Realizing sustainable garages requires cooperation between providers of parking concepts and clients who want to make sustainability concrete. This is happening more and more in the private market where we see that there is increasing interest in tenders in circular construction. Standardization is required for the reuse of the parking garages, and a construction team provides a good basis for a consultation about the optimal realization of a sustainable and reusable parking solution that meets the expectations of the client.

Ballast Nedam Park & Connect is connected to the future of a fully circular living environment. We are improving this environment to realize more sustainable and circular parking garages in collaboration with our clients. This collaboration comes into its own in a construction team such as the one recently started for a parking garage in Breukelen.

(The engineering bureau of the Municipality of Amsterdam has written a guideline for construction teams together with partners; if you want to know more, see: https://www.duurzaam bouw.nl/ artikel/20201028-vertrouwen-is-goed-maar-een-bouwteam- is better)

Project information: TU Delft is the client for the parking garage on Rotterdamseweg. Ballast Nedam Parking is the main contractor. The architectural design of the parking garage was made by Wurck. The permanent team of subcontractors consists of Kampstaal, OFN, Haitsma Beton, All Jobs, Hoes, Spanberg, Spiering, JM van Delft, Kamplacon, Ouwejan & de Bruin, Ballast Nedam Road Specialties, and Ballast Nedam Foundation & Excavation Solutions.

About Ballast Nedam Parking

Ballast Nedam Parking is a fully owned operating company of the Dutch Civil Engineering and General Building Contractor Ballast Nedam N.V., a renowned Dutch listed company, offering an extensive package of construction-related products and services. The company, established in 1877, ranks among the top-five Dutch construction groups. Ballast Nedam aims to set itself apart by undertaking high-profile construction projects, based on a high degree of knowledge and expertise. At all levels in the organization, commitment, quality, expertise, reliability, and flexibility vis-a-vis the client are the key.