We have finished day 10, and today we visited the Delta Park Neeltje Jans. This is a museum and amusement park detailing the 1953 North Sea flood, as well as emphasizing the Delta Works built to prevent such a disaster from happening again. The Delta Works are a series of storm surge barriers that close off the Dutch Delta in the event of severe storms and flood warnings. This museum is specifically built very close to one of these storm surge barriers, named the Oosterscheldekering.
Our first activity in this museum was watching a short movie about the construction of the Oosterscheldekering. It was an extreme investment and lengthy project, taking about 30 years to complete, with 10 of those years being for construction. The first step of this project was to stabilize and compact the seabed using large vibrating needles. This alone took 3 years to finish. Then they laid down a massive mat to act as the base for which the whole of the barrier could be built on. The pillars for this project were manufactured on land, transported to the site of the barrier and then sunk into the sea. Each pillar weighed 18,000 tons, was made mostly of concrete, and took 1 and half years to manufacture. Specialized ships were built to transport these extremely heavy pillars, and make sure they were positioned correctly before being sunk into the sea. One of the last steps of completing the barrier was to install the flood gates. These will be lowered and create a barrier against the sea. The final storm surge barrier was completed in 1986, with the highway built above it completed in 1987.
Having this massive structure in such an integral part of the ecosystem does raise questions about sustainability. Originally, it was thought this barrier would stay closed, always protecting the people of the Netherlands from floods. However, the Dutch delta is a highway to the sea, which is very important for many marine species, as well as for fisherman who require an abundant sea life to make a living. Keeping the barrier closed would disrupt the ecosystem, causing marine life to suffer, and causing many people to lose their jobs. So, it was decided that the barrier would have gates that stay open unless absolutely necessary to close them. This is only happens when the sea level rises 3 meters above the median Amsterdam sea level. This disrupts the ecosystem as little as possible, making this storm surge barrier, and the Delta Works as a whole, sustainable for the environment. Additionally, the Oosterscheldekering has a highway and is now a very important roadway used every day. While this may not be environmental sustainability, it contributes to the sustainability of communities by keeping The Netherlands more interconnected.
Unfortunately, the specialized ships created specifically for this project were only ever used for this project. They were scrapped after the barrier was finished as they were thought to be useless, and now no longer exist. While the Delta Works are generally sustainable for the environment, the process for building them was less so. I believe that when making a sustainable structure, the entire process for constructing it should be as sustainable as possible. Only using these ships for one project before scrapping them is a waste of material, especially when they could’ve been used to build similar storm surge barriers in other regions at risk of flooding.
After learning about the Delta Works, we took a one-hour tour where we learned about the 1953 North Sea Flood. This is something we learned while at the Watersnoodmuseum, and so was a review of history. We then boarded a boat and took a short ride on the sea to get a better view of the storm surge barrier. It was a very impressive structure and feat of engineering. During this boat ride, I also noticed many wind turbines. While this is not the focus of the museum, it was fun to see this casual sustainability. After this fun day at the museum, we took a bus ride back, ate dinner, and went to rest at the hotel to prepare for another exciting day tomorrow!
