The renewed Afsluitdijk in the Netherlands officially opened on October 1 following upgrades to its flood defences and water-discharge capacity, Van Oord said.
With the start of the country’s storm and high-water season, Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Vincent Karremans formally commissioned the new pump station and sluices for discharging water at Den Oever. This brought the dike’s extensive reinforcement and modernisation work to a close.
The Levvel consortium, comprising Van Oord, BAM Nederland and Rebel, carried out the project for Rijkswaterstaat. The works strengthened 32.5 kilometres of dike.
The barrier was raised and strengthened, with new lock barriers at Den Oever and Kornwerderzand enabling passages through the dike to be closed during extreme high water.
The works included installation of 75,000 concrete armour units weighing about 6,500 kilograms each. These are intended to reduce wave impact on the Wadden Sea side.
The new pumping station has six pumps with a combined capacity of 275 cubic metres per second. Rijkswaterstaat said the pumps and new discharge sluices increased capacity to discharge water from the IJsselmeer to the Wadden Sea by 45 per cent.
Water is discharged by gravity when sea levels are lower than those in the IJsselmeer. The pumps remove surplus water when gravity discharge is unavailable. Rising sea levels are shortening the available periods for gravity discharge.
Levvel’s works also included a passage through the dike for the fish migration river at Kornwerderzand. Construction of the four-kilometre channel remains under way, with the first fish expected in early 2027.
The Afsluitdijk has separated the Wadden Sea from the IJsselmeer since its completion in 1932.