Monumental building gets new foundation

Basement and foundation of UvA library was precision work

As a civil contractor, Van Hattum en Blankevoort designs, builds and manages tunnels, bridges, flyovers and viaducts. Its expertise also includes underground inner-city works such as underground parking garages and basements. At the UvA's new university, it undergrounded the monumental hospital and placed a new foundation. For this, the entire building had to be jacked up, which was a very complex job.

Lifting a monumental building, making a new foundation, demolishing the old foundation and excavating and building a basement: it's in a nutshell what Van Hattum en Blankevoort did at the UvA library. In reality, it was a monster job that involved a lot of precision work. Not surprisingly, Virtual Reality and a BIM 4D model were used to determine the method, construction and reinforcement. "The jack structure we placed on the new foundation took over the load, after which we were able to make the ground floor. Below that, we excavated the basement in the soil of the old Amsterdam," explains senior project manager Paul Beljaars. "We had to distinguish in that peaty soil between old wooden piles that had to go and new piles that had to remain, without damaging them. This was done with small machines, partly because there was little space."

Of course, the whole thing was strictly monitored to guarantee (structural) safety. During the process, Van Hattum en Blankevoort encountered many surprises, says Beljaars: "The building turned out to be in worse condition than we thought. We first had to reinforce it with steel beams and masonry. We bridged all the cracks with steel beams. In small steps, with all the specialists, we realized the basement according to plan. Just before excavation, we conducted additional tests and checked whether the theory and practice corresponded. We always remained alert, from designer to carpenter, and adjusted the plan where necessary."

Work started in August 2019 and Van Hattum and Blankevoort was ready in October 2021. After the basement was completed, further construction could begin.