A complex intersection of cables and pipes

Amsterdam Central Station's Westknoop is open to travelers again. The area has been redesigned and made more spacious over the past two years by main contractor BAM Infra Civiel. Verkerk Group was responsible for rerouting, adjusting and renewing all mechanical installations. Quite a job, because the Westknoop lived up to its name and literally turned out to be a complex junction of cables and pipes.

Verkerk Group is a well-known relation of BAM Infra Civiel. "We do a lot of work for this contractor. At an earlier stage, for example, we completed the high-voltage substation on the Maasvlakte and then the transformer station in Wijk aan Zee," begins Jan Flikweert of Verkerk Groep. "From that successful collaboration came the question of whether we also wanted to participate in upgrading the Westknoop - and specifically for the mechanical installations. Given the limited start-up period and scope of the job, we started almost immediately."

Rebuilding with the station in operation

Verkerk Group had only 11 weeks to survey all installations and forge plans to temporarily reroute some of them first. "This is because the construction area had to be cleared of all cables and pipes. After all, it was largely demolished, while the rest of the station had to remain in operation," Flikweert explains. And that rerouting was not limited to a single pipe. "No, it was really a lot and a big part of the total work. We rerouted a huge number of pipelines, and in the process unforeseen ones regularly turned up that no one knew existed. Not everything was on a drawing or well documented. A pipe hidden above the ceiling or behind a wall would only surface when you started demolishing. That made the project really complex. We really had to figure out a lot."

Teamwork is the real strength

And that "figuring it out" didn't just apply to Verkerk Group. "The E-installer and BAM Infra Civiel faced the same challenges. We really needed each other in this project," acknowledges Flikweert, who proudly looks back on the integral cooperation with all parties. "If the work at one party stagnated due to unforeseen circumstances, it immediately affected the other parties that followed in the train. Teamwork was very important here. And that went superbly here. It has also been the strength of the entire project, otherwise we could never have achieved what has been realized now. I am convinced of that."

In the project, Verkerk Group was responsible for the heating, cooling, plumbing, hwa installations, waste water drainage, ventilation, sprinkler and dry fire system. "We also provide the E-installations within our group, but the size of the project was so large that it made sense to split E- and W-installations." 

Original solutions

Fairly unique in terms of WTB installations anno 2025 is an installation for tube mail. "Such a system is highly exceptional nowadays, but on the other hand it also fits the monumental character of this station," Flikweert acknowledges. "After rerouting all the crucial WTB installations in a temporary atmosphere, we started building them back to the final new situation in steps. Heating and cooling was also a 'thingy' in this process. The station is fed by several central heating boilers, whose pipes run right through the Westknoop. It was therefore quite a challenge and a lot of research to adjust the pipes without disturbing the rest of the station. The same applied to the cooling, where we eventually installed an emergency cooling system to spare the rest of the station."

Strong partners

Despite the many challenges and the short time frame in which all the work had to be carried out, Verkerk Group kept a cool head at all times. Flikweert: "We are used to dealing with such situations and carrying out a renovation in an existing environment, while in this case the station was in operation as usual. That is thanks to our team of specialists and the strong organization behind us." Verkerk Group is part of VINCI Energies. "This includes many parties, including Bosman and Vanderlinden. Here at Westknoop, too, we have hired several people from our sister companies, all specialists in their fields. That combination makes us very strong, and it has paid off here. The end result is beautiful."