BRABANT FIGHTS AGAINST WATER
The Measlandkering
The
delta plan supplies for a flood barrier in the Nieuwe Waterweg. But the problem
for the government was how to build it, because Rotterdam is one of the biggest
harbors in the world and the Nieuwe Waterweg is an important route for the
shipping to the harbor of Rotterdam. So closing of the Nieuwe Waterweg
will have very big consequences for the Dutch economy.
This
wouldn’t work. An alternative was to heighten the dike and quay but this would
be too much work.
The
solution for all problems was a moveable storm flood weir. But how to do this?
These delta works were just like the.
and wouldn't work in the New Waterway. This too would be
holding up the 80000 ships passing by each year.
There had to come a weir that would not bother the shipping.
Finally
this happened:
A schematic drawing of the Measlandkering
The building of the
Measlandkering was just as difficult as the solution to the problem of what kind
of delta work had to be build in the New Waterway. Why was this so difficult?
-
During the building the shipping may not be hindered and the channel therefore
had to be 360m broad and 17m deep
- After
a few tests they found out that under the circumstances the Measlandkering would
be build it would unverifiable start to swing. That meant that the
Measlandkering would break after the first storm because on the bottom the
strength of stream is very high [venturi stream].
We have a animation over how the Measlandkering works. Click here to see it.