The Dutch coastline has changed permanently. On 11 July Queen Beatrix gave the sign for the closure of the seawall of Maasvlakte 2. At slack water, when there was minimal current, the large equipment of contractors Boskalis and Van Oord closed the gap in the eleven-kilometre long seawall.
Hans Smits, President and CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority: ‘After 3.5 years of hard work, today we reached a major milestone. The seawall around Maasvlakte 2 has been closed and these 2000 hectares of new Netherlands are properly protected against the sea.’
2000 Hectares Larger
At the end of 2008, the Port of Rotterdam Authority commenced construction of Maasvlakte 2, the land reclamation project in the North Sea for the development of the port of Rotterdam. The construction of the new port area is on schedule, and the first container terminals will be operational in 2014. This project changes the map of the Netherlands. The port of Rotterdam grows by twenty per cent, the Netherlands becomes 2000 hectares larger, and the coastline is 3.5 km further in the sea.
Seawall
The new coastline is now approaching its completion. Its construction took place from two sides over the past years. On the northern side, alongside the navigation channel to the port, 3.5 km of hard seawall was built. The construction is unique in the Netherlands due to the stony dune in combination with a block dam for which almost 20,000 concrete blocks from the seawall of the existing Maasvlakte were reused. On the south side, a soft seawall of 7.5 km was built, made up of beach with dunes of 14 metres high. The dune has been planted along its entire length with marram grass. The beach on the south side has been widened by 100 metres so that beachgoers can enjoy a lovely wide beach at high tide as well. Today the gap between these two sections was closed.
First Large Sand Closure in 25 Years
Since the middle of June, the trailing suction hopper dredgers Prins der Nederlanden and Vox Máxima and the cutter suction dredger Edax have been bringing the last 10 million cubic metres of sand to the missing section of seawall between the sand and the stony dune. On 11 July the three dredgers joined forces to connect the northern and southern sections of the outer contour. It is the first large sand closure since the construction of the Philipsdam 25 years ago, which was conducted by hydraulic engineering contractors Boskalis and Van Oord, united in PUMA (Projectorganisatie Uitbreiding Maasvlakte).
Pride of Holland
The construction of Maasvlakte 2 is a part of the Pride of Holland. The two large Dutch hydraulic engineering companies Boskalis and Van Oord constructed this new land in a very short time. The new area is expected to enable the activities in the port of Rotterdam to continue to grow for the coming 20 to 25 years.
Picture: Closing the seawall of Maasvlakte 2 (picture by Freek van Arkel)
