Today we visited the Deltaworks museum, it primarily showcased the construction of the Deltaworks dams constructed to keep storm surges occurring in the North Sea from entering and harming the Dutch and their property. In the museum, we learned that construction began in mid 1970’s and continued for about 10 years. We learned that the multiple segments of the dam is made up of many cement blocks lined up with each other. We learned that a block would be placed in its spot, lowered into the water, and filled with material to make it sink. We learned that each block is 8,000 tons. When a storm surge is going to occur, a button is pressed and a hydraulic press lowers a blockade into the water, stopping the surge from destroying Holland, as it did in the fifties.

We learned that sustainability played into the design and construction of the Deltaworks. The engineers specifically wanted to implement a default open position feature into the dam because biologists determined that wildlife are dependent on swimming from the North Sea into the delta and vice versa. I would think that to generate some more green energy, one could construct a generator turned by a watermill-esque wheel underneath the water. I say this because when we visited, I saw a constant flow of water from the North Sea into the delta. This feature could be constructed in a way that it does not interfere with wildlife, like applying grates to tunnels that brings in water to turn the wheel inside the tunnel, but not take and in turn kill any wildlife.

After the tour of the museum, we visited the aquarium, where we learned a little about various fish species, but none of them were from the Netherlands region. We also went into a whale exhibit that was a little off kilter and not a whole lot of information was gained. After that, we took a beautiful boat ride into the Sea, which covered the construction of the blocks and we saw some seals relaxing enjoying the warm weather on a beach. On the boat tour, we learned that the blocks used in the dam construction are upwards of 100 feet tall, and that they have placed one near the pier to show visitors what it looks like out of the water.