Renovation of bridge deck Leusden

The Lockhorsterbridge in Leusden is over a hundred years old and located on the busy cycling route between Amersfoort and Leusden. Inspections revealed that the bridge had been severely damaged by concrete decay, which had reduced its load-bearing capacity. Schouls B.V. from Koudenkerk aan den Rijn was commissioned to renovate the bridge while preserving its historical character. Koninklijke Saan was asked to handle the lifting of the new bridge beams. And on October 9, 2025, it was time!

We spoke with Nik Finkelnberg, Operations Manager at Schouls B.V., about this project.

How would you describe Schouls B.V.?

We are truly focused on constructive hydraulic engineering. We build a lot of polder pumps, for example. There is still a lot of work ahead in the coming years in that area. We are also active in civil engineering, and we are very broad in our scope; we connect land and water. We aim to fully relieve our clients.

Schouls B.V. and Saan have been working together for a long time.

Yes, absolutely! I want a company that is easy to reach and thinks along with me. If there’s something I need, I just have to make a call, and you think along. If there’s no time today, there definitely will be tomorrow. Ronald Hopman, our Saan contact, is always willing to look into things and offer suggestions in the process—what’s the most efficient thing to do? A bigger or smaller crane, for example. It’s the direct communication that I appreciate. The fact that I can just call someone instead of having to email and hope for a response. That’s what makes the collaboration so pleasant. I think it’s great; it always works out. Saan thinks in terms of solutions, and that’s the most important thing.

That’s great to hear! We’re lifting the bridge parts now, what’s next for you?

After this, we still need to install some bearing plates—concrete plates that sink with the underlying soil so that there’s no heavy impact when vehicles drive onto the bridge. But we can handle that with our own equipment.

Can you tell us more about this job on the Lockhorsterbridge?

The bridge structure was no longer in good condition, which made it unsafe. It’s an old bridge, after all. The Lockhorsterbridge has therefore been closed for cars and tractors for a while now. Only cyclists and pedestrians were still allowed to cross. The deck of the bridge was in very poor condition, so we completely removed it and made three new beams ourselves that will form the new bridge deck. You’re lifting those into place today.

The bridge has historical value—did that pose any difficulties for this project?

Yes, the edge beams—the railings of the bridge—remain in place. If you were to attach a new bridge deck to those, it would sag, and the edges could tear. The new bridge deck consists of three beams. Once they’re in place, we’ll pour wet joints between the middle two beams—essentially the two connections between the three bridge parts. These will be connected, but not yet to the edges of the bridge. Then, a waterproof layer will be applied over the beams, and we’ll load the deck with sand and stones to the final weight. This ensures the edges of the bridge won’t tear when the deck is eventually attached to them. After the deck is properly loaded, we’ll make the connection with the existing edges of the bridge.

Are there any unexpected things you have to account for in a project like this?

So far, the execution has gone more or less as we expected. There’s always something, of course—a post that gets in the way during installation, for example—but you have to be prepared for that. The challenge is that we’re essentially building a new bridge inside an old one. Normally, when building a new bridge, you construct it from one end to the other. But here, we have to fit the new bridge parts into place, and it’s literally down to millimeters. It’s amazing, though—everything fit perfectly! The lifting was complicated due to the tall trees around the bridge, as the bridge parts had to be lifted between the branches and leaves.

Is this ‘business as usual’ for you, or did you have to use special techniques?

No, this is definitely a unique job. We’re building a new deck in an old bridge, but on a completely new support structure. These are the land abutments. The old, historic land abutments remain intact but are now completely unloaded. We built new abutments behind the old ones, where the new bridge parts will rest. This way, the old Lockhorsterbridge is preserved.