How do you survive construction delays? In Den Bosch, they're not building faster, but waiting less

This week expedition leader Marjet Rutten takes you to North Brabant where municipalities, corporations and developers are discovering the wonderful world of parallel plans.  

The Netherlands wants to build faster. Much faster. Yet housing projects often still take seven to fifteen years. And that is by no means always due to complicated rules or legal procedures. In fact, the sector remarkably often waits ... for itself.

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• Architects are waiting for municipalities.

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• Municipalities are waiting for applications.

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• Contractors wait for permits.

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• Suppliers are waiting for final designs.

And meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

Parallel plans in the Herpense Weide

Meanwhile, more and more municipalities, housing corporations and developers are therefore trying something that sounds surprisingly logical: parallel plans. Design, participation, research, permit preparation and technical elaboration no longer take place one after the other, but simultaneously.

That may not sound revolutionary. In construction, it is. A good example is the area development Herpense Weide in Den Bosch. There, research, participation and design were not organized one after the other, but were combined from the beginning in one joint planning. While residents contributed to the plan, ecological studies were already underway and agreements with market parties were being prepared. The result was not so much a faster permit, but rather a much shorter preparation time.

Breaking the domino chain

And that's exactly where the most important lesson lies. The latest insights from national pilots show that the biggest gains are not made during the permit process itself, but in the years before. Many projects lose time because studies, decision-making, participation and technical elaboration are lined up one after the other like dominoes. Parallel planning takes that domino sequence apart.

Successful projects therefore bring all parties together from day one: municipality, corporation, developer, utility companies, province, water board and sometimes even permit providers and quality assurance agencies. Problems become visible earlier, choices made earlier and delays avoided earlier.

As a result, the role of municipalities is slowly changing from a controller to a thinking partner. Parallel planning is now considered one of the most important instruments for accelerating housing construction. The government even wants to make this method the norm for area development.

Perhaps that is the biggest discovery of this expedition. Building faster is not always about fewer rules. Sometimes it's mostly about less waiting time.

The survival kit of parallel plans

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• Research, participation and design run simultaneously rather than one after the other

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• Municipalities, corporations and developers work in one team from the very first sketch

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• BIM models and digital permit checks make risks visible earlier

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• Decisions are made along the way rather than at a few major decision moments

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• Implementation can start faster because many bottlenecks have already been resolved before the permit is issued

Survivaltip

Not every process needs to be fully completed before the next one can begin. Precisely working together early prevents piles of repair work, delays and resistance later on.

About Expedition Smart Building

Building is like surviving in a jungle of rules, ambitions and problems. In Expedition Smart Building, Marjet Rutten takes you to a groundbreaking place or location each week where they have overcome all obstacles and bears on the road. If you also have a special place that you would like to bring to our attention, please email the editors.

Rutten has been working in the industry since 1998 and wants to contribute to a dynamic, successful construction industry. In addition to her work for Building Balance, she is active as a Gideon and on many government review committees and juries, where her responsibilities include judging the market opportunities of planned product and process innovations. You can order her latest book 'From Brick to Blockchain' on developments in the sector towards 2040 here. More inspiration on developments in our sector? Visit www.debouwin2040.nl