De WERF at De Rondom was home to several student sports associations and contractors, but is currently vacant en will be demolished. After that they can start on the site preparation and moving part of De Zaale, which runs past the construction site. The road will be moved a little towards the Multimedia Pavilion.

Last December sixteen linden trees were already removed for the planned construction of DIFFER. Several pumps for hot and cold storage have been moved as well, and part of the sewers is being transferred right now. Part of the fiber network and phone lines is still waiting to be moved.

Across from the new building, east from Spectrum, a new facility cluster will be set up. According to ing. Maarten Dijkshoorn of DH, the small building will come to include two eight-meter nitrogen tanks, hydrogen storage, a transformer room and a technical area.

The new nitrogen tanks will replace the nitrogen installation that’s still located at the nearly-demolished N-laag and will be demolished in the week of February 11. Any remainders will be flared, meaning the liquid nitrogen will be released under supervision over the course of a few days. This process will cause some noise and nitrogen gas clouds – made up of eighty percent air –, predicts Dijkshoorn.

Dijkshoorn stresses the work progress – and with that the closing of the east entrance – will be dependent on weather conditions. In case of frost, the contractor’s work and planning could be disrupted especially.

Bert Gerrits of Emergency Services says some eleven hundred cars enter campus through the east entrance. Throughout the day, roughly the same number leaves university grounds through there. At the west entrance, near the Kennedylaan, approximately eighteen hundred people come in by car on a daily basis.

Whether or not the three-week closure of the east entrance will cause chaos, Gerrits can only guess. Traffic jams on the public roads are out of the question, however. “Should the situation on the Kennedylaan become potentially dangerous because of the large number of vehicles, maybe TU/e will have to do something.”  He’s pointing to the possibility of opening the barriers, “but that way the university would miss out on a lot of money”.

Last July and August, the Kennedylaan entrance was already closed off for quite some time due to Park Hilaria, the Eindhoven fair. “But that was during the summer break, when campus is rather quiet anyway.”

Als for bikers and pedestrians is De Zaale not accessible those weeks. They can enter the campus on the eastside by driving under the Twinning Centre and between the Paviljoen and the Multimediapaviljoen. 

In the weeks the entrance is closed, drivers will be notified of diversions by signposting both on and off campus.