Transportation system of the future?

Hello everyone,

There is some big hype going on in Arnhem, Netherlands these days.  Decades after first being conceived, construction on the Arnhem Centraal Transfer Hall is now underway under the leadership of Prorail - the company that deals with much if not all of the commuter rail networks throughout the Netherlands.  The transportation hub was originally designed in 1990, yet it did not start construction until much later and is expected to be completed in 2015.  At the time it was originally planned, the Hub was to be cutting-edge designs for the area and times, which would bring much pride, prestige and tourism to the area, especially since the designs for the hub were based off of the rolling hills of Arnhem.  However, now that construction has finally started, the designs are less cutting-edge, if not still an impressive addition to the transportation of the area.

The Arnhem Centraal Transfer Hall is a unique, multi-transportation hub.  The designs for the station are suppose to replace the existing railway station with an updated high-speed rail, be a large transfer station for buses (both regional and local), cars, taxis, bikes and pedestrians;

 with different entrances and exits for each form of transportation.  On the inside of this massive transportation hub, one would find a large, spacious lobby that would have easy directions mapping out where the train station would be at one end of the station, the bus depot at the other.  One would also find large corridors leading to each the trains and bus stations.  With two below-grade levels for bicycle storage and car parking, there is plenty of room for passengers on almost every form of transportation to enter the Arnhem Centraal Transfer Hall, leave or store their previous vehicle, and leave the station on a different form of transportation.  The purpose for this station is quite simple: to get everyone in the direction they need to go, on the best form of transportation to their own individual destinations, as well organized as possible.

The station is not only meant for transportation, though.  In this modern day of consumerism, retail shops and restaurants have been added to the spacious lobby, as well as two office building attached to the transportation hub.  In addition, service area for tickets and other related operations will be located in the main lobby so travelers may purchase their tickets to trains or buses.  The idea behind putting all of these shops and food location in the transportation hub is to tie everything that a traveler may need on his or her travels.  The average traveler will probably be taking one of the two main forms of transportation in the Netherlands: train or local bus, and while waiting for the bus or the train to arrive, one can buy a coffee, or walk through different retail shops.  Adding these shops to the transportation hub will no doubt boost sales withing the hub, and injecting more cash into the Netherlands economy as well.

To highlight the structure's unique, twisted form, designers originally planned to build the transportation hub out of concrete.  However, the designers had a difficult time finding a contracting company that had the skill or will to build such an unique structure out of concrete.

The contractor's main issues were concerns of whether or not the concrete would cure correctly - failure for concrete to cure correctly would lead to large, structure-threatening cracks, resulting in the contracting company needing to come back and do the pour again.  In the end, the design team settled on a contracting company that propose that a steel structure would allow for construction crews to recreate the twists and curves that were present in the designs throughout the structure.

Though much of the structure is complete, the Arnhem Centraal Transfer Hall is expected to be completed in 2015.  Below is a link to an artist's concept art of the transportation hub, for more information on the new Netherlands transportation hub, go to www.asce.org and type 'Transportation Hub back on track in the Netherlands' into the search bar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jjEAZjRpSz4

Thanks for reading this week!

~Civil Biz