On 22 September the water sports centre “Bastion” was officially opened and celebrated! After 12 years of planning and building, the time has now come that all water sports associations can finally use this incredible big and impressive building.
The Connected River team from Nijmegen and the stakeholders from the Spiegelwaal area joined this festive opening that was announced by the mayor. The student surfing club Aeolus, canoeing club NKSV De Batavier, student sailing club De Loefbijter, student rowing club Phocas and the Nijmeegse Reddingsbrigade are really pleased that they can use the building from now on and make more active use of the Spiegelwaal Nijmegen. They have started their new season in the heart of the city!
In this afternoon all the associations said something about the opening of the Bastion and everybody could see the whole process of the building of the Bastion on a big screen.
Why was this great water sports centre realized?
Because of the floods of 1993 and 1995, the government wanted to enact measures in the river area. The situation was threatening: causing risk of dike breaches endangering many hundreds of thousands of people. These risks – mainly caused by climate change – required action. During extreme high water levels the location acts as a bottleneck, making it difficult for water to drain away. Then the project ‘Room for the Waal’ started.
‘Room for the river Waal’ is unique in the virtue of the project’s twin focus on both safety and urban quality. The area in which the Room for the river Waal project is located, was and is meant for urban development. The project therefore has been designed to create water safety and add urban quality.
When the Spiegelwaal was created, they wanted to make room for five water sport clubs; Phocas, de Loefbijter, Aeolus, de Batavier en de Nijmeegse Reddingsbrigade. They are now housed in the Bastion. With the new water sports centre and the addition of a festival compound, crowds are only growing.
Connected River
Within the Connected River project the opening of the water sport centre is crucial. Because of the opening of the water sports centre, there will be many more water users in this pilot area. We want to see if we can facilitate better shared use of the pilot area (Spiegel)Waal by different users! The project team of the pilot area Spiegewaal is now working on a challenge to make the water use of associations and recreational users safer. If there is better coordination between users on the water, fewer unsafe situations will arise.
The water sports centre was developed by the municipality of Nijmegen in consultation with the Nijmeegse Water Sports Foundation (WSN) and realized by BAM. The municipality remains the owner of the building and the associations rent it from the municipality of Nijmegen. To jointly manage the property and maintain contact with the landlord, the associations have united in the Water Sport Center Nijmegen Management Foundation, in dutch: de Beheerstichting Water Sport Centrum Nijmegen (BSCN). In addition, the associations want to work on raising awareness of water sports and the associations in Nijmegen through this foundation.
Source: Municipality of Nijmegen