Smart building hub in the Port of Amsterdam optimises construction flows and relieves roads
The growing number of construction projects in the Greater Amsterdam Area has created a need for a smart and efficient method for transporting materials to building sites. In an effort to meet this demand, the City of Amsterdam, Port of Amsterdam, Waternet and TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) have launched a partnership project in Amsterdam focussing on building logistics. As part of the project, commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, the consortium partners will be facilitating the creation of a multimodal building hub in the Port of Amsterdam.
The multimodal building hub will be used to redirect a maximum amount of construction traffic from the road to the water from a single point located on the water. Combining different types of cargo before they are transported to the building site helps reduce the amount of construction traffic, which, in turn, reduces congestion and improves air quality in the city.
Keen interest among construction companies
An initial information session for businesses, held at Prodock in Amsterdam on 19 April, was attended by dozens of companies, which shared ideas on the possibilities and opportunities involved in using a multimodal building hub and transporting heavy-duty vehicles carrying building materials to the water by road. One of the key outcomes of the session was that it sparked a keen interest among local businesses in getting involved in a pilot project to be launched later this year, eager as they are to help come up with improvements and solutions for the future.
The purpose is for construction-related companies based in the Greater Amsterdam Area to start operating this building hub and to use the hub in optimising construction flows toward building projects located in Amsterdam’s city centre.
TNO’s role in this project is to monitor the impact of using a multimodal building hub. The organisation has extensive experience in, and knowledge of, building logistics acquired in previous projects related to the Logistics top sector. The pilot project will get underway in April 2018, with an initial evaluation scheduled for November 2018. If successful, the project will be rolled out across other construction projects in Amsterdam’s city centre.
Urban logistics tends to be associated with negative effects such as pollution and nuisance. The fact that logistics is a vital part of any city and facilitates urban life makes it necessary to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the logistics system. The European Commission has set the binding target of eliminating harmful emissions such as particulate matter and carbon dioxide from city centres across Europe by 2030. In the Netherlands, the Green Deal Zero Emissie Stadslogistiek (‘Green Deal for Zero-Emission Urban Logistics’) aims for emission-free urban logistics by 2025. This requires a variety of measures in a number of different areas, including not only studies into new technologies, but also numerous practical tests. These tests should bear out that the proposed solution is both effective on a technical level and viable for the businesses involved from an economic and operational perspective.
