New sea lock for the North Sea Canal
The meeting was well attended by 42 attendees.
Antoine Feddema, senior specialist in geotechnical engineering at Open IJ, began the presentation with an overview of the work.
Measuring 500 metres long, 70 metres wide and 18 metres deep, the North Sea Canal will again have the largest sea lock in the world.
The reasons for building a new sea lock are the fact that the current Noordersluis has almost reached the end of its technical lifespan (the lock was severely damaged in the Second World War), has become too small for a smooth and safe flow, the preservation and development of the Amsterdam port region, the need for a solid flood defence and limiting the salinisation of the North Sea Canal.
The decision-making process took a long time but construction could then begin in summer 2016.
The lock is being built on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat by the contractor combination Open IJ consisting of, among others, the contractors Bam and VolkerWessels, Van Oord and Boskalis for the dredging work and PGGM for the financing. The lock is co-financed by the European Union.
A Design, Build, Finance & Maintain contract (DBFM) has been chosen to design and realise the new lock. From completion in 2019, the lock is to be maintained for 26 years.
The following requirements were imposed on the design. It must be a double flood defence lock, expandable into the future with robust structures for the doors and lock heads (because of collision risks). Another challenge is that the work should cause as little vibration as possible because of the subsoil and the condition of the current Noordersluis. Also, settlement failures should be avoided.
The solutions put forward by Open IJ consist of levelling through the doors instead of using bypass sewers. Designing a double-water lock with identical doors and one spare door. The door casings are realised by pneumatically sinking caissons. Large-scale use of diaphragm walls instead of combi walls to prevent vibration damage and noise nuisance. Diaphragm walls are not vibrated in but excavated. This concerns the walls of the lock chamber, the trap wall and the northern wall of the intermediate dam. The intermediate dam is the connection between the new lock and the Middensluis.
Due to logistics, two concrete plants have been placed on the work island.
A complicating factor is the very limited construction site because, during construction, the Noordersluis must be able to be used as usual while the new lock is being built at a distance of 15 metres. This means that there is not the required space for anchoring the northern wall of the new lock. The anchors will therefore be very steep against the wall.
Preparatory studies started in autumn 2015. Among other things, they had to find out if there were any unexploded explosives and cables and pipes, and trial piling was carried out.
Next to speak was Pieter van Lierop, design manager door & motion at Iv-infra, also part of Open IJ. He elaborated on the doors. The doors will be 72 metres long and 11 metres wide because they have to turn water, traffic has to pass over them and the necessary installation systems will be placed inside.
They can be thought of as a ship, can float and consist of compartments.
They are made flat - on their side - from steel in South Korea because of the price-quality ratio.
Because it is a complex job, a team from Open IJ is on site during construction. Only the construction of the steelwork takes place in South Korea. The doors are then shipped to the Netherlands and the finishing work can begin.
The ship used to transport the doors can semi-sink itself, largely submerging the deck, the doors will float and can be pulled onto the shore. All this takes place in Africa Harbour.
The finishing work consists of installing the motion work, electrics and lighting, and the bottom and top rollers used to run the doors on a rail.
It is hoped to sail in the doors in autumn 2018. The door case at the inner head is the largest as this is also where the spare door is to be installed.
For the lock, it is planned to start excavating the lock chamber in mid-2018. In autumn 2019, they hope to open the lock to shipping.
After this fascinating presentation, there was an opportunity to view the exhibition in SHIP and/or go up onto the roof to look at the construction site.
Description
The KIVI North Holland Region cordially invites you to the presentation on the construction of the new sea lock at IJmuiden.
Are you curious about the construction of the high-profile project new sea lock IJmuiden? The new, large sea lock at IJmuiden, at the entrance to the North Sea Canal, is necessary for the development of the Amsterdam port region. Moreover, the lock is of great importance for national and international goods transport. The transport of goods by sea is increasing and ships are increasingly larger and especially wider. As a result, the current Noordersluis, built in 1929, is now too small for a smooth and safe flow. Moreover, the Noordersluis will reach the end of its technical lifespan in 2029. After the new,large sea lock is put into operation at the end of 2019, Rijkswaterstaat will decommission the Noordersluis.
Construction of the new sea lock will take place on the IJmuiden lock complex, between the existing Noordersluis and Middensluis locks. The construction site is therefore very limited in space. Because of the limited space at the construction site and from a safety point of view, we will not visit the construction site but will receive a presentation at the nearby SHIP information point.
Speaker(s)
Presentation by Antoine Feddema, Senior Specialist Geotechnical Engineering and Pieter van Lierop, Design Manager Door & Movement of Open IJ, the contractor consortium building the lock
Location
Organiser
North Holland region
Name and contact details for information
Virginia Doelwijt