Heijmans Excursion – Prinses Beatrixsluis

On the 27th of September, a group of us visited Heijmans at the construction site of the new Prinses Beatrix lock. During our visit, a presentation was given about the project. Because more and larger ships make use of the canal, the 2 existing locks from 1939 cannot offer enough capacity. Therefore, a third lock is under construction that will improve the capacity for the comming years. In addition, the canal will be widened to create more space for additional berths. This all will provide a faster and safer transport over the Lek canal. Due to the monument status of the old part of the lock and the presence of objects of the “Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie” (New Dutch Waterline), several interesting complications had to be handled. In addition, Heijmans will also be responsible for the maintainance of the locks after construction. This has resulted in certain decisions about the design, such. The presentations showed the versatility of the project. After the presentation we got a tour over the construction site. This provided a better understanding of the scale of the project and in which way such a large project could be addressed. In addition, it also gave insight into possible problems that arise during construction.

Overall we can conclude that was a very interesting and educational morning. We would like to thank Heijmans for the presentation and tour around the construction site and all students for attending