Enthusiastic students on a visit at SBE

On Tuesday, March 28, 200 third grade secondary school students from various schools in Sint-Niklaas were immersed in the construction process of the new bicycle bridge that will be built at Vijfstraten in Sint-Niklaas as part of the F4 bicycle highway between Ghent and Antwerp.

Belgian Construction Award winning campaign

Based on the example of the award-winning communication public campaign in 2022 (https://belgianconstructionawards.be/winnaars-2022/), this year’s students also had the opportunity to attend four different sessions that consisted of both lectures and interactive workshops. The sessions were held at three different locations within walking distance of the actual project area.

Session 1 (‘t Bauhuis, Slachthuisstraat, Sint-Niklaas):

Alderman for Mobility Carl Hanssens talked about mobility in the city and why a shift to sustainable mobility is necessary. The Province of East Flanders then explained the importance of bicycle highways on an intermunicipal level and the associated modal shift.

Session 2 (Site visit, Sint-Niklaas):

The bridge’s designers (SBE) along with the contractors (Viabuild nv and CSM steelstructures nv) took the students on site visits. Timing, budget, design and implementation techniques were discussed.

Session 3 (SBE, Slachthuisstraat, Sint-Niklaas):

During a tour of the offices of the multidisciplinary engineering firm SBE nv, the students were shown how to deal with such complex infrastructure projects. Students were given a better idea of exactly what this means through drawings, mathematical models and a conversation with different profiles.

Session 4 (‘t Bauhuis, Slachthuisstraat, Sint-Niklaas):

A VR bicycle simulator allowed students to experience the new Vijfstraten bicycle bridge route, which makes it easier to sense the added value of the project. The VR cycling route effectively mimics the gradients to make the experience for the cyclist as realistic as possible. This is done both with and without VR glasses. Students also worked together on the same location to build a bamboo bridge, and they were able to apply their own knowledge in practice. This is a real challenge for the future engineers, architects and draftsmen from the different specializations of third grade secondary. This included highly mathematical fields, architectural design, green management and technical study programs from different schools in Sint-Niklaas (SJKS, Portus Berkenboom, Scholen Da Vinci, Sint-Carolus, Broeders Humaniora, OLVP, Berkenboom Humaniora).

Since the construction of the bridge has already started, and this in the center of the city, the students will also have the opportunity during the coming months to continue to follow the evolution of the bridge.

We hope in this way to arouse participants’ interest in scientific specializations by putting them in contact with concrete projects close to school. A link is also established with the business world and the students themselves get to know each other better beyond the boundaries of their school. Finally, we try to teach them the importance of sustainable mobility.

From the media on the topic:

• Read the contribution in Het Laatste Nieuws of 28/03/2023 here
• Discover the article in GVA of 29/03/2023 here
• Watch the report on TV Oost of 3/28/2023, here