Today we headed out to the coastline of The Netherlands to take a look at the Delta Works project!! On the way there, I had fun looking out the window and being able to see so much water from all of the inlets and the North Sea. The Netherlands has miles and miles of coastline due to the geography of the coast, and the fact that there are so many inlets increases the perimeter. This is where the Delta Works projects is able to help with flooding, by closing off some inlets .

We started out by watching a video about the construction of one of the largest barriers. What struck me about this video was how just massive the project was. It’s still hard to wrap my mind around how much money, planning, time, and effort went into this project. We learned that it took about 4 billion euro. They had to build a whole “work island” just to be able to build the concrete puzzle pieces that connect the barriers. They also built many kilometers of padding that was designed specifically laid on the ocean floor. Additionally, they had to build a giant boat to be able to lift the pieces from the work island and place them together. They did this all with a few centimeters of precision. Additionally, they had to import rocks from Germany to lay on the bottom to hold the structure in place. I could not believe all of the planning and engineering coming together to make something so massive yet so useful. This taught me that with government support, good engineers, and a good purpose this can cause innovation on huge scales. In terms of concept to customer, even with such a large concept, if broken down into smaller processes it can still be delivered to the customer.

And deliver they did. The barrier has has to be used 33 times since being built to prevent massive floods like Watersnood in 1953, which we learned about at the museum a few days ago. When the water rises over a certain level, they lower the steel barriers into the water to prevent any water coming in from the North Sea. The water in 1953 rose to 4.2m over regular levels, but they will activate the barrier for anything over 3m. However, something that was scary to think about was the fact that scientists are saying that by 2100, due to rising sea levels, this might not be enough. Expanding the barrier as of right now would take even more land, displacing houses and current infrastructure, more resources, and more money. I am intrigued to see how The Netherlands decides to tackle this issue.

One big takeaway for my future career was from the fact that these barriers also serve as a large and important highway, that many cars drive on everyday. This made me think about efficiency, and from a concept to customer standpoint, I thought about how you can satisfy the needs of 2 customers with 1 product. Or, cater to multiple needs of the same customer with the same product. It might seem obvious now, but I don’t know if I would have thought of combining the needs of safety and travel with the same product. However, it works so perfectly. Because the barriers are only activated once in a year or so, it is such a great use for the space and all of the building that went into making the pillars. I think it is also more sustainable to get the most use you can out of a project that you used so many resources to make, having as little waste as possible.

After, we walked around the park which had some fun parts like an aquarium and an information center about whales, as well as some seals, sea lions, and a water slide. This was pretty fun, but my favorite part was going on the boat. We got on a large boat and headed out on the North Sea to get a better look at the storm surge barriers. I took a picture of the view from the boat. They were huge, and on the water I could just really appreciate how difficult it would be to build something that could hold all of that water back. We also saw a family of seals and I just thought that was really cute and awesome. I also had stroopwafel cheesecake at the cafe which was really yummy! So that was my day. I’m so sad this trip is coming to a close, but also so excited that we still get to see the floating farm soon. See you tomorrow InHolland Rotterdam!