CFE - 2006 annual report - Vinci

The “Agora” project, a public-private partnership, is pro-
gressing well and should be completed by the end of 2007.
This project, located in the centre of Kapellen, consists of
38 apartments, retail space, a library and underground car
park. In association with MBG, Van Wellen is building a new
sports facility called “Lotto Arena”, for Sportpaleis, which
will open its doors in spring of this year.
The “Pelican” road project includes the complete rebuild-
ing of “Pelican” street and “Simons” street in Antwerp.
The difficulty of this project lies in the fact that these two
streets are located in the very centre of Antwerp beside the
Central Station, which means a very dense working envi-
ronment and a very short completion period.
The challenges related to the execution of this project are
numerous: allowing safe passage to pedestrians entering
and leaving the station without having them disturb the
works; providing access to the retail shops at all times;
monitoring the work schedule and coordinating our differ-
ent subcontractors and suppliers. For example, the tiling
and the kerbstones come from China (delivery time of
± 3 months).
My ambition is always to have a good working environment,
both with the client and with my colleagues, so as to bring
the project to a successful conclusion. I consider this to be
one of my main tasks, as people work better in an atmos-
phere of mutual trust.
It is enormously satisfying to end a project on time and
to the satisfaction of the management. But it is the posi-
tive reactions of the neighbours that give you the greatest
satisfaction.
Kristof Aernouts, 33 years
Road Works Project Manager
Safety has also been the subject of a number of initiatives
taken by staff. The efforts made in this area have already
borne fruit as the number of accidents has dropped once
again and the severity rate has been halved. Van Wellen has
never had such good safety statistics.
Supported on the one hand by being part of the CFE group
and, on the other, by the retention of its own coporate cul-
ture, Van Wellen looks forward to 2007 with confidence, in
both the road and construction market segments.
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