This afternoon, July 11th,  talks will take place at the Harnaschpolder waste water treatment plant in Midden-Delfland between Elco Brinkman, chairperson of Bouwend Nederland, and Maria van der Hoeven, Secretary of Economic Affairs. Bouwend Nederland requested Strukton Integral Projects to select a special location for the discussions. Mr Hermsen, director of Strukton Integral Projects, proposed that the location for the talks should be the Harnaschpolder.

This location is highly appropriate for the purpose: Harnaschpolder represents the first public private partnership in the Dutch Water Board world and as such it constitutes a kind of visiting card that shows just what modern construction is able to achieve. Responsibility for the full life cycle of the project resides with a consortium of which Strukton forms part. Harnaschpolder was opened on 28 March 2007 by His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange.

Purification capacity in The Hague region has been substantially expanded by the commissioning of this purification plant: the Harnaschpolder will be effectively responsible for purifying 75% of the waste water from the city of The Hague and its surroundings. The waste water is purified biologically. This entails that nitrogen and phosphate is removed from the waste water together with the bacteria, but without the addition of chemicals. This method is less expensive and is better for the environment.
 
The Harnaschpolder is part of the public-private partnership between the Higher Water Board of Delfland and the Delfluent consortium. The Higher Water Board has entrusted the financing, construction, maintenance and management of the Harnaschpolder to Delfluent until the end of the year 2033. This public private partnership is intended to lead to cost savings, risk control, innovation and sustainability.

The consortium consists of five parties: Strukton, Heijmans, Rabobank, Veolia en Evides. Strukton has gained major experience in implementing policies that give central priority to the end user. The company has now combined its expertise in the fields of contract management, project management and financial engineering and is deploying them in achieving the aims of the Delfluent partnership. The partnership’s project manager for instance, Dick Spinder, works directly on secondment from Strukton. Strukton is also responsible for the civil engineering sections of the waste water purification plants.