Sikko Doornbos:

‘Further strengthen the European branch of DFI’

“The European branch of the Deep Foundation Institute, a worldwide, but originally a typical American organisation, starts to gradually acquire its own 'face' in Europe. It is important that the Europeans within the DFI also do things together on all fronts, including being socially involved, networking, making trainee posts available, developing study programmes and exchanging knowledge. And we have good contacts with organisations such as the NVAF and the European EFFC.”

Sikko Doornbos, director of Terracon, which forms part of Colijn Beheer, which in turn belongs to the Strukton Groep, is President of DFI Europe and is certainly not unsatisfied about the developments since the formal foundation of the European branch of the DFI in 2005: “Interest is growing. We foundation people have common interests and this is starting to be acknowledged.”
DFI is the only organisation in this professional group that unites four disciplines. In addition to foundation contractors, you can also find advisors/consultants, academics and suppliers of material and specialised equipment among the members of the DFI. And this makes discussing the profession a lot easier.
“It really helps”, says Doornbos. “In part we are a social group. But it is also important to do some networking. For instance, if I need to do a job in Portugal, I can contact a Portuguese who can assist me or who knows someone reliable who can help. And this also works the other way round. The foundation world is becoming increasingly international, and so are the contacts. Having a drink together, or having meetings that our partners also attend; it all makes it more fun. A social platform as a foundation for a professional network!”

Study
The association has organised some one-day study meetings in Rotterdam and London, and similar meetings are planned elsewhere in Europe. In 2010, a congress is also on the programme, organised together with the European Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC), as was held before in 2006 in Amsterdam (North-South Line). In part, this club operates in the same area, but an important difference is that the EFFC has no private or company members, only the national federations. DFI has, on the contrary, private members and companies, which makes its structure very flat.
The EFFC was founded in 1989 with the aim of taking common positions as foundation specialists, in particular towards the European Commission, but also towards national governments, architect and engineering organisations and local authorities.
“As the DFI, we also consider it important for the other disciplines to join in with the discussions related to how we execute our work in practice. However, it is of course impractical to travel to the United States for a one-day congress. It would be ideal if the DFI had its own branch on each continent. China for instance is developing rapidly, and we should not allow the opportunities to pass us by,” says Doornbos. “DFI International is already actively addressing this.”

Knowledge
“Another important aspect is the exchange of knowledge”, says Doornbos and he is not afraid to put his competing colleagues on the right track. “We have all protected our most important discoveries and some of them are available under licence. For instance, an important Belgian licence was sold to the United States.
It's certainly not one-way traffic.”
“We also want to work on student exchange programmes within and outside of Europe. And we want to contribute to a network for trainee posts. A US student followed his traineeship in Europe, and when specific knowledge was required later, he remembered someone in Europe who could help.”  
“We also want to contribute to improving knowledge and interest in the science subjects. But we don't only focus on the foundation sector. This must be picked up by the entire sector. But it's all voluntary work done by the members of the board, who also all want things to go faster.”
“Our profession – however great and versatile – still has the image of thudding pile drivers and splashing oil. And we do not stay at the same building site for months or years on end. We do our job in a few weeks or a couple of months and then leave. If you do your work well, you will never see any of it again, literally or figuratively.”

BOX
Sikko Doornbos, born in 1956, is also director of Colijn Beheer BV. He is specially tasked with the operational part of Terracon: Terracon Funderingstechniek BV for the Benelux, Terracon Spezialtiefbau GmbH for the activities in Germany and Terracon International BV for the other countries.
The contracting company Colijn & Ippel, the names of two brothers in law from Nieuwendijk, took on the first job on 2 August 1949. In 1972, the second generation Colijn continued independently as the contracting company Colijn Aannemersbedrijf and pile driving company Colijn Heiwerken. In those years, the Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management was a major customer, but an important part of the turnover came from Belgium.
In 1989, Henk van der Schaaf joined the board of directors and Terracon Funderingstechniek was founded. The company focused in the main on specialist foundation work and the market covered the Benelux and a part of Germany.
In 1995, Sikko Doornbos and Jan Luyten joined the board of directors as managers. The company has now been sold to the Strukton Groep, that transferred the Colijn Beheer companies to Strukton Civiel.