hThis is the most important condition for work on Dutch waterways: shipping must be able to continue to navigate. “But unfortunately we cannot meet this very important requirement this time,” regrets environmental manager Jacques Timmermans of Rijkswaterstaat at the Juliana Canal construction site in Limburg. “Following last year’s disaster, the canal between Berg aan de Maas and Born must be completely drained over a length of 4 kilometres to make it deeper, wider and accessible to larger ships.”
About the author
Peter de Graaf is a regional reporter. of Volkskrant in the south of the Netherlands. Previously he was a Brussels correspondent and business reporter.
The century-old canal, which runs parallel to the Meuse, has been closed for at least eight months since this week. Such a long-term closure of an important waterway, which is part of the Meuse Route, is not common. This means that ships from the hinterland have to detour for months via Zeeland and the Belgian Albert Canal. The affected shipowners, shippers and other businesses are not happy about this and estimate the damage to be in the tens of millions of euros.
Flooded construction pit
At the beginning of last year, Rijkswaterstaat enthusiastically began work on widening and deepening the Juliana Canal. The tried-and-tested “construction pit” method was used: a sheet metal pile wall measuring 800 by 40 metres closed off only part of the canal. The work was carried out in this dry dock, while ships simply sailed to the other side of the canal.
The 15-metre-high sheet pile sections had been “vibrating” up to 10 metres deep in the bottom of the canal. But in this part of Limburg the subsoil of sand, gravel and huge boulders is “unpredictable”, says Timmermans. ‘Suddenly water started to flow out. The construction pit was filled within 7 minutes. The 15 people working on the bottom of the canal were barely able to reach land, fortunately even with all the machines.’
Following this incident, the work was halted. An investigation followed and people were wondering: what now? The faulty cofferdam has caused unsafe situations for passing ship traffic: at least eight times an incident or near-miss has been recorded, for example because a ship threatened to collide with the cofferdam or the canal dam in the narrow passage.
After careful consideration, Rijkswaterstaat decided: “In order to safely remove the defective cofferdam and complete the work, we will drain the canal.” Work began this week. Large cranes and dredgers are constructing a huge dam near the village of Berg aan de Maas. First, greasy black clay is poured onto the bottom of the canal using excavation buckets. This is followed by gravel, rubble, willow mats and another layer of clay to waterproof the tens of metres wide dam.
179 million euros
Villagers regularly come to watch the work. “This is our grandstand,” jokes area manager Timmermans, as he kindly explains the activities to a man with a dog.
When the dam is completed, the contractor will allow water to flow in phases 4 kilometres downstream into the Born lock. According to Rijkswaterstaat, this is a water reservoir of almost 1.9 billion litres. Most of the fish will also leave the dammed section of the canal. The fish that remain in increasingly shallow water will eventually be “caught” by a kind of pulse fishing and released again on the other side of the lock.
A temporary 4-kilometre-long and 9-metre-wide “construction road” will then be built on the bottom of the canal to transport and remove 400,000 tonnes of stone, 160,000 tonnes of gravel, 1.4 million tonnes of soil and many other materials. This is a mega-project with a provisional budget of 179 million euros. This is more than three times the previous budget, before the construction disaster.
Damage to businesses
To allow the water to flow past the dam, a ‘siphon tube’ has been built: four thick pipes through which part of the water reaches the Meuse. This emergency hydraulic engineering measure is also necessary to continue to supply sufficient (and “pure”) cooling water to the Chemelot chemical complex near Geleen. “Chemelot, for example, does not want any algae in the water,” explains Timmermans.
A sore point is and remains the damage to companies that make extensive use of the now closed channel. The Limburg Employers’ Association insists on a generous compensation system and tailor-made solutions, precisely because the situation is “unique”.
Koninklijke Binnenvaart Nederland is disappointed by the temporary recovery. “The alternative of diverting ships involves additional costs due to fuel consumption and extra travel time,” the industry association said. In addition, additional disruptions are also occurring on the circumnavigation route via Zealand due to maintenance work on the Kreekrak locks on the Scheldt-Rhine Canal.
From 7 to 7
Infrastructure and Water Management Minister Barry Madlener announced last week that there would be no further scheme to compensate for the disadvantages. Companies have to make do with the traditional settlement of claims for “abnormal infrastructure measures”.
The Rijkswaterstaat is also concerned about the disruption to local residents, says regional director Timmermans. He points to the row of houses whose yards border directly on the canal and where huge excavation and dredging equipment is now noisily busy building the dam. “The business community prefers us to work 24/7 to get the job done as quickly as possible,” he says. “But we also want residents to be able to rest in the afternoon and evening, and in principle we work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.”
