Asbestos remediation historical ship Amsterdam

The “Christiaan Brunings” is a steamboat built in 1900 as a management vessel on the Amsterdam shipyard of Jan F. Meursing, with the an icebreaker body. The ship is named after Christiaan Brunings, a Dutch hydraulic engineer who is seen as the founder of the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat (which is responsible for design, construction, management and maintenance of the main infrastructure facilities in the Netherlands).

In 1967/1968 Rijkswaterstaat was looking for an opportunity to keep the ship from demolition. On January 31th 1968, with the support of various companies and private individuals, it is transferred to the the Dutch Historical Maritime Museum. The ship is listed as a sailing monument in the National Register of Sailing Monuments of the FONV with registration number 577 and part of the collection of the Maritime Museum, after it served in both the First- and the Second World War.

Since 2003, the Christiaan Brunings, which moors at the Maritime Museum, has been used during of the arrival of Saint Nicholas in Amsterdam. A suitable location as Saint Nicholas is also the patron saint of seafarers.

Asbestos with a risk class 2A outside was found in the chimney pipe of this historic ship. This means that no containment is required, but that remediation can be done from the outside. The special thing about this remediation is that it is a monumental ship and the work must be nog only executed carefully to remediate the asbestos but also to not damage parts of the ship.