Deep craftsmanship under an ambitious icon

A building of 42,500 m². Two towers for living and working. And underneath: a two-story parking garage, right in the middle of downtown Eindhoven. A gigantic construction pit was dug for the prestigious EDGE project in Eindhoven. And who do you call? M. Heezen bv from Eindhoven. Together with subsidiary B. Schepens bv from Best, the company is carrying out the groundwork. "A project this big, this fast and this technically challenging doesn't come along very often," says manager John Snijders of B. Schepens bv.

And that's saying something, because the company has been running in the world of ground and infra work for a quarter of a century. Since 2019, it has been part of Heezen Bedrijven, where as a specialist branch it picks up all complex ground and infra jobs in and around Eindhoven.

Nice numbers, impressive speed

EDGE came on the radar of M. Heezen bv and B. Schepens bv back in 2020, when the team was asked at an early stage to help with planning and execution. In 2024, the work really got underway and by now the earthwork is complete for some 95%. The first step of the execution was to reinforce the site with 2,300 tons of rubble paving. This was followed by assistance with sheet piling, bored piles and grout anchors. This involved removing over 3,500 tons of grout.

Only when all this was in place did the excavation work begin. In six weeks, the team excavated a construction pit of no less than 30,000 cubic meters. Excess soil was removed, reusable soil was temporarily stored elsewhere and soil improvement was applied under the basement floor and crane piers. The 6,000-square-foot basement floor was profiled to the millimeter. After the basement walls were poured, outgoing soil was brought back from a temporary depot and processed and compacted between the basement walls and sheet piles. 

Surprises under the ground

But those impressive numbers took a lot of doing. "The real challenge was in the soil," Snijders explains. "We were working with widely varying bases: loam, sand, peat - a bit of everything. And then also with different environmental qualities: clean soil, soil class residential and soil class industrial. This requires flexible disposal logistics that are accurate to the minute. Sometimes the composition changed during the day. Thanks to extensive inspections in advance and good agreements with subcontractors, every freight was able to go to the right place at the right time."

As if that wasn't enough, the team also delved into the past while digging. Snijders: "We came across old foundations, remnants of waterways, shoring - sometimes up to six meters deep."

Every cubic foot counts

EDGE stands for sustainability, connection and innovation. And that doesn't just start above ground. Below ground level, that same vision is translated into a technical puzzle of stature. No architectural lines, but logistical precision and smart solutions, executed in an environment where every cubic foot counts. It is exactly that kind of complex inner-city groundwork that M. Heezen bv and B. Schepens bv excel at.