Alex Jansen

Dutch Boosting Group

Beyond Tools: A Socio-Technical Approach to Systems
Engineering in Business Context

Bio.
Alex is een zeer ervaren consultant en manager in de infrastructuur met meer dan 30+ jaar ervaring. Hij vervult diverse rollen, variërend van Systems Engineering manager (2GW programma van TenneT) tot projectleider Groot onderhoud Papendrechtsebrug (Rijkswaterstaat) en Technisch manager (project Guisweg). Het toepassen van de principes van SE is een rode draad door alle projecten en rollen die hij oppakt. Als medeoprichter van Dutch Boosting Group wil hij laten zien dat een brede inzet van SE bij de maatschappelijke opgaven van deze tijd leidt tot de juiste oplossingen binnen aanvaarbare kosten. Kenmerkend voor zijn stijl van werken is zijn sensitiviteit voor processen en zijn hands-on mentaliteit. Hij doet dit met een grote mate van betrokkenheid en enthousiasme. Zijn specialisme is het samen brengen van (externe) partijen om te werken vanuit een gezamenlijk belang.

Abstract.

Rationale
The Guisweg level crossing in Zaandijk, where the road
meets the Alkmaar–Amsterdam railway and the N203
Provincialeweg, has been a bottleneck for years. Heavy
train traffic causes long waiting times, and cyclists
frequently cross while the barriers are already closing.
The layout for pedestrians and cyclists is unsafe and
unclear. A second driver is the national High-Frequency
Rail Programme (PHS): the intended timetable between
Alkmaar and Amsterdam cannot be delivered while the level
crossing remains. Third, the combined rail and N203
corridor forms a physical barrier between the
neighbourhoods around the Zaan and western Zaanstad, with
too few good east–west connections. Continued growth in
residents and businesses makes intervention urgent.
The project objective is to improve safety and
accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and motor traffic
at and around the crossing, and thereby enable the PHS
timetable. Sub-objectives address quality of the living
environment, barrier effect, social safety, and
accessibility of Zaandijk Zaanse Schans station.
Solution
The chosen solution is a lowered (grade-separated) Guisweg
intersection. The level crossing is removed; the Guisweg is
sunk between the 1e Guiswegdwarsstraat and the Wezelstraat,
and the Provincialeweg between the station square and the
Lindelaan, with a signal-controlled junction at the lowered
intersection. Decks carry the railway and the fast-cycle
route over the lowered Guisweg West. Additional measures
include new grade-separated cycle and pedestrian links on
both sides of the Provincialeweg, a two-way cycle track
with footpath to the station, relocation of bus stops and
bike parking, a relocated Wezelstraat junction with access
for the mosque, motor club and Club Koog, urban and
landscape integration, water-management measures, and
utility relocations.
Systems engineering and organisation
A Top specification serves a the project’s baseline and
control instrument. It translates problem definition and
objectives into nine explicit functionalities of the
“Guisweg system” — conflict-free crossing, safe crossing,
accessibility, traffic flow, interface continuity with the
surroundings, quality of the living environment, traffic
safety, social safety, and station accessibility. They are
the functional top requirements feeding the functional
analysis, the system decomposition into subsystems and
objects (object tree), and the function allocation matrix,
all recorded in the Functional Top Requirements
Specification. Objects fulfil functions and thus define
scope, giving unbroken traceability from problem to design.
This specification also verifies goal fulfilment explicitly.
The work is carried out by Projectbureau Guisweg for the
Amsterdam Transport Region and its partners, organised
along the IPM model: Project Management and Control,
Environment Management, Technical Management, and Contract
Management.