On the 15 and 16th of March 2019, the Belgian and Dutch National Groups of IABSE jointly organized their first Young Engineers Colloquium 2019 (YEC2019) at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. YEC2019 is especially meant for young engineers to exchange knowledge internationally, with the focus on Belgium and the Netherlands. This colloquium offered young engineers the opportunity to present their interesting research, engineering or construction projects to an audience of fellow engineers from the structural engineering sector. The event was sponsored by 14 Belgian and Dutch sponsors and attended by 64 participants.

A call for papers was launched by the end of 2018. The colloquium was open to all professionals interested in structural engineering regardless their age, but apart from the keynote speaker, all presenters are young engineers under 35 years of age. A total of 34 abstracts were accepted by the scientific committee of 5 members: Prof ir H. H. Snijder (Eindhoven University of Technology), Prof ir B. De Pauw (Ghent University and TUC RAIL), Dr ir Ane De Boer (formerly Rijkswaterstaat), ir Pierre Mengeot (BESIX N.V.) and ing B.H. Hesselink (Movares). The authors were invited to write a 2-page paper on their subject. The scientific committee selected oral and poster presentations based on the criteria of originality of the subject and added value, presence of a clear statement, readability and layout regarding the template. A number of 13 papers were finally selected for oral presentations and 21 for poster presentation. All papers and a keynote paper are part of the colloquium proceedings which are freely available.

On the 15th of March as the first day of the colloquium, a total of 64 participants attended the colloquium. The event started with a keynote lecture from Prof dr ir V. De Ville de Goyet (GREISCH – Uliège – CHEC (Paris)) on the subject “The arch, a tool for the bridge designer”. Afterwards, 3 oral presentation sessions and 3 poster presentation sessions were held alternately. In presenting the posters, elevator pitches were organized. This provided attendees with an overview of current research topics as well as challenging engineering and construction projects and is an excellent platform to share experiences among experienced and young engineers. The best two oral and two poster pitch presentations were awarded with € 500,-. After the closing session, a 3D concrete printing demonstration was given in the Structures Laboratory of the Eindhoven University of Technology. The first day ended with a dinner at the laboratory, a dinner speech by Rob Wolfs (Eindhoven University of Technology) on the subject ‘3D concrete printing on a tabula rasa’ and finally an awards ceremony on the best oral and poster presentations.

On the second day of the colloquium, Saturday 16th of March 2019, the Technical Excursion took place visiting several bridges on the Albert Canal in Belgium by bus under the guidance of technical specialists. Three bridge building sites were visited: in Zutendaal, in Ham (Kwaadmechelen) and in Eindhout. The bridges are under construction but in different construction phases. These three road bridges on the Albert Canal are part of a project with the aim to increase the clearance height under the bridges along the whole of the Albert Canal. The project was commissioned by Vlaamse Waterweg to the joint-venture Via T-Albert in the form of a PPP contract for the design, building, financing and maintaining of the bridges. The bridge type of these bridges is similar: a steel bowstring bridge with steel arches coming together in the central part of the arch. The deck consists of steel main and transverse girders with a concrete deck plate on top of it. The deck and the arches are connected by slender full steel hangers.