Three questions to Peter van Hoogstraten of OpenIJ
In recent months, the corona crisis has also reached the new sea lock in IJmuiden. Appropriate measures had to be taken. OpenIJ started taking measures at the construction site at a very early stage.
Peter van Hoogstraten is project leader at OpenIJ for the eastern part of the lock in IJmuiden. According to Peter, compliance with the measures is going well. We asked him three questions about this.
What corona measures have been taken?
"The measures can be divided into three categories, information and instructions, measures in our site building, and measures on the construction site itself. OpenIJ set up a corona team in the first week of March. This team converted the RIVM guidelines into guidelines for OpenIJ. The team provided information and instructions through e-mail, toolboxes in 8 languages and by means of flyers, banners and leaflets in the site huts. Special measures had also been taken for the site building. Apart from that, a large number of employees were required to work from home. Extra cleaning had been organised for the site building, disinfectants were available, the canteen was closed and everyone had to take lunch in his or her own office room. On the construction site, extra site huts and sanitary facilities had been installed. Here too, everything got an extra cleaning. To avoid hustle and bustle around the coffee machine in the morning, an extra coffee hut had been installed with a coffee machine staff.”
How do these measures fit into daily work?
"We take things seriously. In the beginning, the corona team met daily. Now it is twice a week. We had given a lot of thought to how the work could be carried out in a corona-proof way. In some situations this was solved by wearing protective equipment. What we see is that everyone on the construction site is motivated to apply the necessary measures. After all, construction work is how we earn a crust and by complying with the measures we can continue to work. When the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, was still shaking hands, we already had employees, who had been to Italy and Austria, in home quarantine."
What impact do the measures have on the work on the construction site?
"Project managers and planners now work in couples in shifts either at home or in IJmuiden. This ensures that there is enough 'social' space for the site managers. Passenger transport on the construction site has also been put on hold. That's why you sometimes have to walk a kilometre before you reach your work site. In addition, there is extra supervision by site managers and safety experts to ensure that the measures are complied with.”