Province Noord Brabant A59 Freeway Upgrade - Program Management

Client: Ministry of Finance, Province of Noord Brabant

Location: Den Bosch, The Netherlands

Map showing the location of Province Noord Brabant A59 Freeway Upgrade - Program Management

Executive Summary

Fluor was the lead company in the Poort van Den Bosch consortium, selected by the Dutch Government to design and build, as well as finance, the upgrade of the N59 state highway into the A59 Freeway, a six-mile route near the city of Den Bosch.

Member firms in the Poort van Den Bosch partnership included Royal BAM Group, Boskalis and Fluor. ING Bank, financial adviser to the consortium, and the Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten raised the required financing for construction.

Client's Challenge

This $206-million highway upgrade was the first road project in the Netherlands procured under a public-private partnership (PPP).

The 18-year PPP agreement included a three-year period for design and construction and a 15-year maintenance period.

By using the PPP contract approach, the Province of North-Brabant accelerated the project schedule by five years over the original plan. In addition, with the design-build, finance and maintenance contract approach, project costs were 14% lower than the costs of a traditional design-bid-build contracting process.

Fluor's Solution

Fluor provided program management services for the A59 Freeway Upgrade.

The upgrade included the design-build of all bridges, adjacent parallel roads, bicycle lanes, exit and access lanes, noise barrier systems and traffic control infrastructure.

Existing at-grade crossings were replaced with either viaducts or underpasses. At ground level, the intersections combined a traffic circle with a freeway underpass.