The Noorderzijlvest district water board intends to award the contract for the Eemshaven-Delfzijl dike reinforcement project to a consortium consisting of Royal Boskalis & KWS Infra.
The contract carries a value of more than EUR 60 million. Two thirds of the contract value are for Boskalis, with the remainder for KWS Infra.
Dike Reinforcement
The project involves raising and widening the Wadden Sea dike between Eemshaven and Delfzijl over a distance of twelve kilometres, as well as making the dike earthquake-proof. The operations will be carried out from the end of 2016 until the end of 2019.
The dike reinforcement project is part of the Dutch Flood Protection Programme, an alliance of Rijkswaterstaat (the Dutch Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management) and all district water boards aimed at reinforcing primary dikes in a more innovative and robust manner.
At present, the dike between Eemshaven and Delfzijl is strong enough, but it does not meet the new government standards that will apply from 2017. The reasons for this are rising sea levels and climate change, as well as earthquakes and subsidence due to gas extraction operations in the area.
