IJmuiden Sea Lock Project – Spring 2020 Update

OpenIJ – a consortium of construction companies building the world’s largest sea lock in IJmuiden, the Netherlands – has released the spring update for this development project.

According to the update, this spring, OpenIJ is going to asphalt part of the future public road near the guard wall and the dividing wall.

Also, the builders will complete the last section of the southern lock chamber wall.

OpenIJ is also working on the kistdam (a cofferdam) and they will also be busy with concrete pouring of layer no. 7 – the final layer of concrete – for the walls of the lock gate chamber of the inner head.

Work has been underway in IJmuiden since 2016 to construct the world’s largest sea lock, which will accommodate increasingly large seagoing vessels.

The new lock, which will be 500 meters long, 70 meters wide and 18 meters deep, is a joint project between the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the province of Noord-Holland, the municipality of Amsterdam, Port of Amsterdam and the municipality of Velsen.

Commissioned by Rijkswaterstaat, the new sea lock is set to be completed in early 2022.