Alumnus Merlijn van Beurden
My name is Merlijn van Beurden. I am 30 years old and I have been working at Sweco for over six years. I am currently a design leader and technical manager for integrated infrastructure projects. In this role, I ensure that the knowledge from the entire company is utilized to solve our clients' challenges. I translate our clients' requests into tasks that our specialists carry out and then convert that specialized technical information back into a clear answer for the client.
What does Sweco do?
Sweco designs and develops the sustainable societies of the future. From the energy transition to mobility, from flood protection to greening initiatives, Sweco is involved in everything you see outside.
Taking into consideration the various challenges we face as a country and as a world, our engineers and architects design the indoor and outdoor spaces of tomorrow. With our extensive expertise, we advise our clients on the challenges they encounter and help them make the world more sustainable, accessible, and liveable.
What’s a project you’ve worked on?
For three and a half years I worked on the reconstruction of the A9 between the Badhoevedorp and Holendrecht junctions (A9BaHo). As the lead designer, I contributed to the widening of approximately 10 kilometers of the A9, where 1.6 kilometers of highway near Amstelveen will be sunken. Additionally, several structures will be expanded or replaced, and a new reversible lane will be constructed. I worked not only on the road design for how the A9 should ultimately look, but also on the phasing plans to ensure that the final vision can be built step by step. It was quite a challenge, especially within the limited space in Amstelveen.
What was your first job?
I started as a road designer in Sweco’s Integral Design Infra team, where I still work. One of my first projects was the Oosterweel Link in Antwerp, where I learned a lot about what an integral design involves and how to handle it in road design.
Subsequently, I advanced to the lead designer role on the A9 BaHo project. Since completing that project, I have served as a design leader or technical manager on various infrastructure projects.
What skills do you need as a civil engineer?
The great strength of a civil engineer, in my opinion, is the versatility in solving complex problems. Because of the broad education you receive in the programme, you have a solid foundational knowledge that is useful in every project. No project is monodisciplinary, so it helps if you can speak each other's language. Besides this technical knowledge, it is also important that you can collaborate with people who do not have that technical knowledge. Put yourself in their shoes to clearly explain technically complex challenges and solutions, and be open to the insights they offer.
Why are civil engineers important?
From roads to dikes and from transformer houses to skyscrapers, civil engineering is everywhere and plays a crucial role in themes such as sustainability and liveability. A civil engineer's versatility makes him/her ideally suited to not only understand and solve complex social issues, but to also explain these solutions to everyone. There is a need for both specialists, for technical solutions, and generalists, who bridge the gap between technology and society. In the future, technology and society will be even more interconnected than they are now, creating many great opportunities where civil engineers can play a role.
