Bike path made of circular concrete

In the Hessenpoort business park in Zwolle, part of the Hermelenpad has been constructed with largely recycled concrete. This is a trial by Heijmans and the municipality. In the coming years it will be monitored whether the bike path functions well and knowledge will be developed about the quality of the materials used.

The test section is about ninety meters long and covers the last section of Hermelenpad, the new bike path on Hessenpoort that connects to the newly constructed Paderborn Street.

In this trial section, delivered by Heijmans on Wednesday, Dec. 16, the proportion of recycled concrete was increased from the usual thirty percent to more than sixty percent of the total mixture. The next few years will be monitored to determine whether the quality of the concrete bike path remains good.

Step toward circular bike lanes

Within the Hessenpoort construction team, the municipality of Zwolle and Heijmans are trying to use sustainable solutions and innovations in the design and implementation. For this bike path, concrete consisting of one hundred percent recycled gravel, fifty percent recycled sand and fifteen percent recycled cement was used.

With that, it has less impact on the environment than a mixture consisting of 30 percent concrete aggregate. "A huge step in making the concrete chain circular," said Mark Christenhusz of Heijmans.

As a client, the Municipality of Zwolle currently already requires that a portion of the concrete raw materials be recycled material. These requirements will be further tightened in the coming years.

Source: www.heijmans.nl