Week 37, 2026: rebar deck finished, tower crane ready for the pour at Circulus Utrecht

Foundation

Week 37, 2026 – The rebar deck is finished, and the crane stands ready for the pour

8–11 September 2026

Tuesday, just before eight, and the week starts under a flat grey sky. From the entrance the trench of conduit now runs all the way along the edge of the plot, with the black ducts standing up in pairs beside it. Between the site cabins and the road sign there are fresh piles of sand and a neat stack of insulation boards.

View past a road sign toward the Circulus site entrance: a service trench with blue conduit, black utility ducts, yellow-capped pile caps and a rebar cage on the left, sand heaps, coloured containers and yellow site cabins behind, pink insulation boards in the corner

Turn to face the site and the change since last week is easy to see. The rebar deck now covers the whole footprint, one continuous rust-brown carpet from the timber retaining wall to the pavement, with the deeper edge-beam cages folded down around its sides. In the middle the tower crane stands on the pad from July, its base weighed down with concrete ballast blocks, and a worker is checking something at its foot. Thick power cables loop across the deck between timber posts, keeping them clear of the steel.

The base of the yellow tower crane standing on its concrete pad in the middle of a complete rust-brown rebar mesh deck at the Circulus site, a worker beside the ballast blocks, power cables slung between timber posts, deep edge-beam cages and black utility ducts in the foreground, a brick apartment block behind

A worker kneeling on the pavement cutting timber beside stacks of used formwork boards and wooden stakes, the finished rust-brown rebar mesh deck with column starter bars stretching toward the timber retaining wall and brick terraced houses, cables slung on timber posts, tower crane mast at the right edge

On the pavement side a carpenter is kneeling over a saw among stacks of old formwork boards, cutting stakes for the edge shuttering. Straight up, the crane's cab and slewing ring sit high above against the cloud, with a blue weather-proof box bolted partway up the mast.

Looking straight up the yellow lattice mast of the Circulus tower crane to its cab, slewing ring and jib against a grey overcast sky, a blue electrical cabinet partway up the mast and the top floors of a brick apartment block at the bottom

Friday morning, same grey sky, and nothing seems to have moved, which is exactly the point. From along the retaining wall the deck runs the full length of the plot, every column starter in place, the crane parked with its jib swung round over the street. It all looks like a site that has finished its preparation and is waiting for the concrete mixers to arrive.

The rust-brown rebar mesh deck of the Circulus site running from the timber retaining wall along a dark brick gable toward the tower crane and a seven-storey brick apartment block, yellow-capped column starter bars rising from the mesh under a flat grey sky

The Circulus tower crane seen from below against a pale grey sky: yellow lattice mast, operator cab and slewing unit, long horizontal jib reaching right and counter-jib with ballast to the left, treetops and a brick apartment block at the bottom

Full-length view of the finished rebar mesh deck at Circulus Utrecht from beside a dark brick gable wall, column starter bars spaced across the plot, the tower crane standing in the middle distance, a coiled black hose on the pavement in the foreground