EPCI
A blessing in disguise SOMETIMES THINGS ARE JUST MEANT TO BE. WHEN SEVERAL YEARS AGO HILLEBRAND ANNOUNCED THEIR PLANS FOR A NEW QUAY AT THEIR VLISSINGEN LOCATION, NO ONE WAS THINKING OF A LONG DELAY. ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF HILLEBRAND.
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othing less was true though, as the Dutch nitrogen emissions crisis threw a spanner in the works. However, in the end all things positively came together positively with the recent acquisition of the Vlissingen facilities of the former De Donge Shipyard. Jan Krielaart, Managing Director of the company, explains. “Our company should have had a new 250m long quay operational at our location in Vlissingen in January 2020. An extra terrain of 44,000m2 would have been realised behind this new quay, providing us with additional storage and handling space. Furthermore, new offices together with a new construction hall and painting facilities would have been constructed as well, to prepare ourselves for the future.”
18,000 projects stalled
Before the construction works could start, the project came to a halt. The Council of State, which is the Netherlands’ highest administrative court, in May 2019 stated that government rules for granting construction permits and farming activities that emit large amounts of nitrogen, were breaching EU legislation. As a result, up to 18,000 infrastructure and construction projects were stalled, including Hillebrand’s project.
A front-row seat
“Stalling our project was a disappointment for us at first,” Mr Krielaart states, “as this was planned to meet the expected growth in demand from the offshore and
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13-09-2021 10:07
