A new Maritime Campus driven by innovation

Tractebel was asked by the shipping company Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) to carry out this major project in a construction team with architects KCAP, the urban planners of Atelier Romain, contractor Willemen and smart buildings specialist Spacewell. In addition to program and project management, the Tractebel team will contribute to the master planning, take care of the entire infrastructure design and carry out all technical building studies. Tractebel was also asked to apply BIM and to look after the architecture during the execution phase. The sustainable and water-bound character of the site are the building blocks of this project. The intention is to bring together different maritime players, government and education in one location in order to find answers to the maritime challenges of tomorrow.

"In such projects with a water-related character, we can fully integrate our expertise in the field of energy, water, infrastructure, construction and mobility", emphasizes Bram Vandenboom, Head of Urban at Tractebel in Belgium. "As engineers and consultants, we can offer the most added value in a project if we can fully deploy our expertise from the very first pen stroke. We like to think along with the other stakeholders in an integrated way in order to achieve a good, well thought-out and balanced project. Sustainability as a driving force throughout the project is also extremely important to us. Our experts will provide our more low-carbon energy and sustainable mobility solutions and ensure that the entire project is robustly interwoven with its surroundings, including the neighboring Hoboken polder".

The ambition is to have completed most of the demolition and remediation work by the end of this year. The construction of the first part of the campus will start at the beginning of next year. The opening is scheduled for 2023.