The footbridge over the tracks at Nijmegen Heyendaal station will be five times wider to allow for the growing number of train passengers. The footbridge will be hoisted into place next weekend. As a result, there will be no train traffic between Nijmegen and Mook-Molenhoek for three days.

Work will start as soon as the last train passes Heyendaal station on the night of Thursday to Friday: that is when the lifting cranes will spring into action. The most iconic item of the revamped station will then be put in place: the traverse – the footbridge over the tracks. It was delivered in three parts and will be assembled on site on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

‘The old traverse was only 2 metres wide, this one is over 10 metres,’ says Tjebbe Ruskamp, Project Manager at ProRail. ‘This is needed because Heyendaal station has a ‘hyper rush hour’: not a regular rush hour from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., but a shorter one from 8.45 a.m. to 8.55 a.m. During this short period, the station is suddenly flooded with thousands of students and employees from Radboud University and HAN University of Applied Sciences. We are now building to absorb that peak: safety for travellers is our top priority.’

Upgrade

Construction of the new Heyendaal station began last spring and will continue for at least another six months. A lot of work has already been done. For example, the old lifts were demolished and new glass lift shafts were installed. ‘Things are going smoothly so far,’ Ruskamp says of the progress. ‘The contractor and subcontractor are working according to schedule. It is going to be a beautiful station, a real upgrade compared to the old one. The platforms will be longer and wider, there will be new waiting shelters, and the station will be more accessible, with more capacity. Heyendaal will also be ready for longer trains and the electrification of the Maaslijn.’

The construction time of over a year is really short, especially compared to the preparation time. ‘This was preceded by ten years of consultations. The government, province, municipality, Arriva, the universities, the Dutch Cyclists’ Union, Oogvereniging, Liander, the environment agency, the building aesthetics committee: they all have their own ideas about it, and all these ideas have to be taken into account. Plus, we have to coordinate it all with the renewal of Nijmegen station (Programma Hoogfrequent Spoorvervoer) and the renewal of the Maaslijn. Not to mention the Four Day Marches, when no heavy construction traffic is allowed through the city for a week.’

Sacred

According to Ruskamp, it’s a real balancing act: the four weekends when no trains can run along the route because of the construction work had to be applied for more than 2.5 years ago. This coming weekend is the last of the four. ‘Those periods are sacred at ProRail, and we plan them well in advance. They cannot be changed. If the work takes longer than planned, we have to finish it at night, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., because there is no train traffic at those times anyway. But that is far from ideal. So hopefully everything will be finished in time on Sunday evening.’

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, buses will run between Nijmegen and Mook-Molenhoek stations and stop at Heyendaal station.

This article, written by Maarten Reith, was previously published in de Gelderlander.