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Oosterscheldedam

GeneralProblemsThe planResearchShipsThe constructionNature

The bottom of the Oosterschelde was thorough investigated. They have to be 100% sure everything was known of this area so there were no unexpected surprises during the building of the barrier. The bottom was investigated on:
  • condition of the soil
  • type of soil
  • ground layers
  • geological structure

Soon they realized that much had to be done. In many laboratories a variety of tests were done for different scenario’s.

 A part of the Oosterscheldedam
A helicopter The existing vessel were not sufficient and could not reach the high standard which was needed. New machines, vessels and equipment had to be invented or existing gears had to be adapted. Even during this project changes were made.

Hydro-Meteo Instituut
For an accurate weather forecast sensitive equipment was needed. The Hydro-Meteo Instituut had many checkpoints in a wide area round the Oosterschelde and on the North Sea. Good information of the weather, tidal movements and water flows were important. The information this institutoin could produce were:
  • water heights
  • current speeds an directions
  • wave fields
  • water temperatures
  • salt concentrations
  • wind speeds
The tasks of this institution were:
  • collecting and interpreting data
  • distributing the information
  • management of all the instruments

For collecting data and distributing all he information several new developments were triggered and new systems had to be invented and designed and on many points solar energy was used (unusual for that time).

 Workers
Electronics

In these days modern equipment needed much energy. A constant amount of electricity was necessary. Energy consuming equipment were:
- new technologies for positioning-equipment on the vessels
- new technologies for inspecting the surface of the sea bottom
- gyroscopes and accelerating meters
- new and complicated (for that time) computers assimilate all the information.

Energy

On a construction site, an island in the Oosterschelde, a power plant was built. This plant had a capacity of 12.000 kVA, enough to feed a city with 45.000 households. The electricity was produced by 15 diesel generators and one wind mill.

Sonar

With sonar several items could be checked:

  • position of sand and pebbles and the sizes of every particle
  • edges of the asphalt
  • remaining sand on the asphalt
  • condition and places of the concrete blocks.

After several tests they were sure sonar was a good instrument for these inspections.

Sun in flooded land