Consultancy and engineering firm Witteveen+Bos has announced its acquisition of Maidl Tunnelconsultants (MTC), with the contracts making the acquisition official having recently been signed.
Germany‑based MTC is a renowned specialist consultant in the fields of underground infrastructure, tunnel engineering, and tunnel boring technology. This strategic acquisition marks an important step in the strengthening of Witteveen+Bos’s expertise and services in the infrastructure sector.
Leonie Koops, business line director at Witteveen+Bos, says of the acquisition, “Witteveen+Bos and MTC have known each other for decades. Our collaboration dates back to the North-South Line, one of the most complex and prestigious infrastructure projects in the Netherlands. In recent years, we have regularly worked together. Both parties look back positively, for example, on a recent study for a bored tunnel to help bring energy from wind farms ashore. This acquisition now allows us to intensify our collaboration and offer a wider range of expertise to our clients. It also allows us to further integrate our respective fields and take advantage together of the opportunities offered by digitalisation. That will create a lot of opportunities for us, including internationally.”
Koops continues: ‘Although we are well positioned for the future with projects like Zuidasdok, we want to be less dependent on infrastructure developments in the Netherlands. Also, our own expertise on bored tunnels primarily relates to soft soils with high groundwater levels, whereas MTC’s bored tunnel expertise covers all possible scenarios.’
The name Maidl Tunnelconsultants will be retained for the new Witteveen+Bos business unit. Jeroen de Leeuw MSc and Ulrich Maidl PhD will oversee this new unit. In the interest of collaboration, capacity will be exchanged, employee deployment optimised, and technical knowledge strengthened. Ulrich Maidl explains: ‘The chance now exists to exploit opportunities presented by digitalisation as well as, for example, 3D FEM calculations, which accurately predict the strength, stiffness and durability of structures. Further developing our real-time data management system, PROCON, also has a prominent place on our joint agenda.’
Jeroen de Leeuw adds: ‘With the addition of high-end expertise on bored tunnels, we now have demonstrable experience with all possible techniques for constructing any kind of tunnel. After all, clients often do not know whether an immersed or a bored tunnel would be most suitable for their project. The expertise, diverse portfolio, and network that Witteveen+Bos and MTC now jointly possess in this specific international market will be an important factor for ensuring stable returns in the coming years.’ Opportunities in this market are thus set to increase, with Witteveen+Bos already playing an active role through our ongoing collaboration with Royal HaskoningDHV under the name Tunnel Engineering Consultants (TEC). MTC’s bored tunnel expertise will further strengthen TEC’s market share.
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