Cooperation between TU Delft and Noord-Zuidlijn aimed at furthering knowledge

A great deal of knowledge and experience is currently being acquired during the construction of the Noord/Zuidlijn, a metro line underneath Amsterdam. Valuable knowledge that needs to be anchored and expanded upon. This is why Peter Dijk, General Director of the Dienst Noord/Zuidlijn and Louis de Quelerij, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft signed a cooperation agreement on 18 February 2011. This allows, for example, the experience acquired with regard to drilling tunnels in urban areas, to be shared and embedded in civil engineering curriculum.

Due to soil conditions and the often vulnerable buildings above, drilling tunnels in urban areas in the Netherlands is often very complex. New knowledge and experience in this field is currently being acquired during the tunnel drilling for the Noord/Zuidlijn in Amsterdam. By embedding this knowledge and the accompanying extensive data into TU Delft’s academic environment, this knowledge can be elevated and used for future projects. In this way, Amsterdam Municipal Council’s Dienst Noord/Zuidlijn can further the development of tunnel drilling technology so that, for example, risks can be managed better.

Multi-year cooperation Noord/Zuidlijn and TU Delft

In order to anchor the knowledge issuing from the Noord/Zuidlijn, the agreement has laid down multi-year support and cooperation with the Underground Space Technology chair at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG). The Dienst Noord/Zuidlijn is responsible for the delivery of a working Noord/Zuidlijn public transport system. From a social responsibility perspective, it is important for the agency to expand the knowledge that arises from the project, but also to utilise it in, for example, bachelors and master’s education, and research at TU Delft.

Current projects utilising Noord/Zuidlijn knowledge

At the moment, PhD research is being carried out at the faculty of CEG into improving the tunnel drilling machine’s performance by increasing the reliability of design models. This concerns the interaction between the machine and the subsurface. The knowledge acquired during the Noord/Zuidlijn project constitutes important input for this project.