Working Together on Civil-Engineering Structures within the Dutch Flood Protection Programme: challenges and opportunities

Over 400 civil-engineering structures (e.g. sluices, pumping stations) are listed in the Dutch Flood Protection Programme (DFPP). That is a daunting task for the next 30 years, meaning that every three weeks one structure should be reinforced to meet the statutory standards. In an innovation project, the regional water authorities, Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch Flood Protection Programme, research institutes and the consultancy agencies joint forces. In the past period, we have identified numerous obstacles, using the critical success factors framework, that hamper the reinforcement of these civil engineering structures. To tackle the barriers, we developed a roadmap that gives more insight in the steps for strengthening these structures. In addition, lessons learned from current strengthening projects on civil engineering structures are used to further optimize the overall programming of these structures within DFPP, and to enhance the knowledge transfer and uptake within the triple helix.