Yesterday's concrete for tomorrow

With this theme, the Northern Concrete Repair Afternoon took place last March 21 in Zuidwolde. This event, organized by Concrete Maintenance Platform (BOP) was an excellent opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of concrete repair, to share knowledge and to network with industry professionals and clients. 

This varied afternoon consisted of a combination of networking and a program of lectures. After receiving the guests at the networking plaza, people could start getting ready for the first part of the program which started with the opening and welcome by chairman of the day Anthony van den Hondel of BOP and Henk Jumelet, Deputy of the Province of Drenthe.

Concrete Maintenance Platform

Very enlightening was the first part in which, through open-ended questions posed to the representatives of the five different organizations that make up BOP, both the current state of affairs and the future of concrete maintenance were discussed. Since these organizations represent the entire column of the industry, i.e. educators, consultants, manufacturers and performers, the audience got to see all facets of the industry. Some important topics received specific attention, such as personnel, knowledge retention, European regulations and cooperation. 

Transition Path Artworks

Speaking as a client, Penny Pipilikaki, Senior Technical Advisor for Bridges and Viaducts at the Department of Public Works, spoke about the challenge facing the Department of Public Works in extending the more than 4,700 structures it owns. In doing so, Rijkswaterstaat's ambition is to achieve climate-neutral and circular infrastructure projects by 2030. This is done using the so-called R-Ladder, the ranking of circularity strategies. The higher a strategy ranks on the ladder, the more raw materials it saves. Pipilikaki ended with an appeal to those present to help Rijkswaterstaat with this task as an industry: "Extend life span of engineering structures? We do it together!"

Chloride-initiated reinforcement corrosion

After the break, things got a lot more technical but certainly no less interesting when Floor Thijssen, Structural Engineer at Solid Services, gave a lecture on the influences of chloride-initiated reinforcement corrosion for the load-bearing capacity of a structure and how to recognize this corrosion and what stage the corrosion is at. Again, measuring is knowing. This by analysis of the construction, (non-)destructive testing and a structural assessment. Repair can take place by traditional concrete repair and cathodic protection and/or reinforcement with traditional reinforcement, carbon reinforcement or memory steel.

Technophilosopher

Finally, there was room scheduled for Rens van der Vorst, the self-proclaimed technophilosopher. He works as a teacher and researcher at Fontys College of ICT and Engineering, where he coaches ICT students on the impact of technology. With his story, he showed in an inspiring, informative and confrontational way the impact of modern, digital technology on our lives. In a comical account, he answered questions such as: is data-driven work really a good idea? Why do you only see ugly people on Tinder? Can you trust rainfall radar?