Beneath the Place du Grognon in Namur, at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse, the De Graeve company is building a five-level underground parking garage. It is a project that comes with some tough technical challenges. For instance, the lowest level must be able to function as an additional water buffer during heavy rainfall. An ingenious system for the controlled flooding of the parking garage, developed in collaboration with Deschacht, provides a solution.
The geographic location of the parking garage is unusual. «It is being built on a site wedged between the waterways and the existing buildings. That is why we applied the top-down method. We excavated the construction pit through a 15x15 meter opening in the floor slab that covers the parking garage,» says Colin Godefroid, engineer and project manager at De Graeve. «All the soil was removed through that opening, after which we erected the structure of the parking garage from the inside out (from bottom to top).»
construction, civil engineering, hydraulic engineering and restoration De Graeve benefits from highly specialized know-how, which involves it in varied activities: construction, civil engineering, hydraulic engineering and restoration.
