IJmuiden Sea Lock Project Continues

OpenIJ – a consortium of construction companies building the world’s largest sea lock in IJmuiden, the Netherlands – recently released the latest update on the development project.

Image source: Rijkswaterstaat

Over the last two months of this year, OpenIJ was busy with the installation of pipes and cables and with the construction of the road next to the guard wall.

Work also continued on the lock sill of the outer head and on the lock operating consoles in the Lock Operation Center.

The consortium was also busy with the removal of the partitions in the lock gate chamber of the inner head.

Guard wall

The concreting operations on the guard wall have been completed. These concreting operations were necessary to bring the flood defense structure to the required height and to create the approach channel for ships navigating to the new sea lock.

In the coming period, OpenIJ will be working near the guard wall for the final installation of pipes and cables and for the final construction of the road.

Lock sill of the outer head

Open IJ is currently busy with the construction of the floor of the lock sill of the outer head. The builders are connecting the floor of the lock sill to the lock gate chamber of the outer head.

In the future, the new sea lock’s outer gate will run across the lock sill. The underside of this two-meter thick concrete floor lies at a depth of 21.50 meters below NAP.

Inner head

The lock gate chamber of the inner head, which in the future will house the inner gate (i.e. the gate on the canal side) as well as the spare gate, was sunk to its final depth in October.

The lock gate chamber of the inner head has now disappeared approximately 18 meters into the ground to a depth of 25.50 meters below NAP.

Now that the sinking operation has been completed, the equipment used in this operation will be dismantled and removed from the construction site.

The lock gate chamber of the inner head still contains several concrete partitions that were necessary to give stability to the concrete structure during the sinking operation.

OpenIJ will remove these partitions in the coming period so that – at a later stage – the inner gate and the spare gate can be placed into the lock gate chamber.