NEW SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT NEARS COMPLETION AS SECOND HEAVY-TRAFFIC TIMBER BRIDGE IS MOVED INTO PLACE
Accoya® wood, the world’s leading high technology wood by Accsys Technologies, has been chosen for a major new industrial development in the Netherlands, where sustainable building products are a key requirement. Following the installment of a heavy-load timber bridge during late evening on Saturday 20 November, the €10million A7 upgrade project in Sneek, Friesland, is nearing completion, thirteen years after the project’s conception.
The bridge, constructed of Accoya® wood, peaks 21m above the highway and measures 32m long by 8.5m wide and 16m in height. This is now the second Accoya® Bridge at Sneek after the 2008 completion of the first wooden bridge in the world able to support the heaviest load class of 60 tonnes.
Traffic demands necessitated that the A7 road required an upgrade to highway status as well as the extension of a southern town bypass, which would involve the addition of two new bridges. The route, however, runs alongside a complex canal network between lakes in an area of outstanding natural beauty, often referred to as the “Venice of Holland”, meaning that the upgrade had to be sympathetic to the natural surroundings as well as comply with the stringent environmental stipulations of the Netherlands. The project commissioned by Mr. Sieds Hoitinga on behalf of the Province of Friesland.
Despite traditional perceptions of its dimensional stability, the project architect deemed timber to be the optimal choice for the Sneek upgrade because it is the only natural construction material and has endless aesthetically pleasing qualities. Concerns surrounding the longevity of timber do not apply to Accoya® wood following stringent testing and the publication of a new report from Scion, formerly known as the New Zealand Forest Research Institute, which confirms that Accoya® outperforms the naturally durable cedar, cypress, kwila and teak timber species. In addition to the two bridges constructed of Accoya® wood, the development also features a roundabout with Accoya timber balusters.
Accoya® wood was specified by OAK Architects, the project designers, because it is a non-toxic, high performance timber product that is sourced from sustainable, fast-growing FSC and PEFC approved forests. Accoya® wood has significant environmental
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advantages over slow-growing hardwoods or softwoods modified with toxic chemicals, supported by the fact that it is certified as Gold Standard by Cradle to Cradle. The high-technology process that creates Accoya® increases the durability of the wood to Class 1 and also extends the effective duration of coatings. Accoya® wood is warranted for 50 years above ground and 25 years in- ground and freshwater, a factor which also appealed to the architects and town planners involved in the project.
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