Vonk en Vlam

The Vonk en Vlam project, now the St. Jan car park, provides subterranean parking facilities at the Zuiderpark, Den Bosch. The projected was particularly challenging as it was constructed immediately outside the historical city walls. During construction, parts of the concrete structure turned out to have insufficient load capacity. The required additional strengthening was achieved by applying carbon-fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. Summum Engineering’s Diederik Veenendaal, while working at Witteveen+Bos, acted as checking engineer for these alterations.

The St. Jan car park consists of three subterranean levels with a total of 1040 parking spaces. In September 2014, during construction, several beams on the upper levels were revealed to have insufficient load capacity. The solution was to apply strips of CFRP laminates, glued to the soffit of these beams. The composite action of the concrete, its rebar and the additional CFRP laminates then allows for higher loads. Structural calculations were carried out on the basis of CUR Aanbeveling 91, which requires testing to verify the strength of the glued connection in order to achieve sufficient composite action.

Studio Leon Thier Architecten | Architect
Heijmans | Contractor
Van Gogh Bouwtechniek | Structural engineer

CFRP laminate reinforcement
Pieters Bouwtechniek | Structural engineer
Diederik Veenendaal | Witteveen+Bos | Checking engineer