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caissons were put on a foundation of stones and gravel to prevent them for sinking in the
sandy bottom. The center part of the dam have to be higher than the rest because the water
in the middle was deeper. This was done for the passing ships so this could be a shortcut
to Vlissingen and Middelburg and they don’t have to sail by the North-Sea. After
placing 13 caissons and making a dike on top of the dam the Zandkreekdam was finished in
1960. The east side of the future Veerse Meer was closed.
Sizes of a caisson component:
11 meter long
7,5 meter wide
6 meter high
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| Closing the east side of the Veerse Meer was easy. The current in this part was
not high so they could work with blocks ( caissons) with uniform sizes. These blocks were
hollow so they could float and positioned were they could sank in place. The caissons were
produced on a special construction site near the village Kats on Noord-Beveland. They have
tried to make these caissons in one piece but this was almost impossible for the walls of
caissons must be as thin as possible so the concrete must be of an extreme high quality.
They made the walls apart from the rest and in al later phase all these parts were
assembled. To have caissons of different heights they made components of several sizes
which could be stacked as Lego-blocks. To prevent the caissons from disappearing in the
sand they first have to make a threshold of big rocks and stones of different sizes. The
small holes in between were filled with pebbles, gravel and sand to avoid leaking. |
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