It’s now Thursday night, and tomorrow morning we’ll be heading home from Amsterdam. As with any project, some things haven’t gone quite as smoothly as they might, but more on that in a bit.
My son and I proudly donned our MX3D T-shirts for this morning’s pic:
Here’s another shot from the bridge itself, looking down the canal.
Now for some information about the main issue currently impacting the project. Here’s a video I took while on the bridge, that shows a quick walkover and the canal views.
As you can see, there’s an issue with the clearance between the bridge and the pavement, which seems to have come from a lack of clarity around recent changes to the canal walls.
Addressing this has become the main focus of the bridge team for the last few days: getting the bridge safe and functional for next week’s grand opening is clearly the highest current priority. It’s still important to get the sensors up and running and have the system collecting data, but that’s inevitably taking second place, for now. The team will get there, though!
Here are members of the bridge team in discussion regarding the mitigation plan, which looks likely to be started tomorrow.
Unfortunately my son and I will be flying home to Switzerland just after lunch, so I hope I’ll be able to help get the server room online before heading to the airport. (I’m really not directly involved in any particular task – I’m mainly here for moral support and to help where I can – so I’m confident that Kasper and Max from MX3D will make it happen, one way or another.)
I did get the chance to catch up with Joris Laarman, the bridge’s designer and one of the primary instigators of this project along with MX3D co-founders Tim Geurtjens (former CTO) and Gijs Van Der Velden (CEO).
Despite the latest minor frustrations regarding the placement that need to be worked through, everyone I’ve seen this week from MX3D seems thrilled to be so close to the end of this iconic project. Seeing it in place over the bridge is a huge moment for everyone, and it’s now just a matter of time and energy to cross the final hurdles. Despite my own indirect involvement in the physical piece of this project (my role is very much on the downstream data visualization) I’m also really excited: it’s going to be incredible!
Breaking news: as we didn’t get as far along as we’d hoped, this week, I’ve just been granted approval to come back next week, to help with any last-minute actions and be there for the bridge’s opening. So expect more updates next week.
