Delfland Coast

Encouraging nature and reinforcing the Delfland Coast

Client
The Delfland Coast was one of the 'weak links' in the Netherlands' chain of coastal defences. Weak links are narrow parts of the coastline that the Department of Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) has assessed as being too vulnerable to protect the land against flooding in future. The Delfland Coast is approximately fifteen km long and runs from the Hook of Holland to the southern jetty of the town of Scheveningen.

Our work
Since November 2008, the Delfland Coast Consortium - of which Van Oord is a member - has been building up additional dunes on the seaward side of the existing dunes along this stretch of coast, as well as an extra wide beach. At the same time, a new nature reserve was created along the Delfland Coast between the Hook of Holland and 's-Gravenzande. Van Oord deployed various trailing suction hopper dredgers on the project. The necessary sand was dredged from the North Sea and then pumped to the beach by pipeline or deposited on the foreshore by means of rainbowing and dumping.

Results
The reinforcement work ensures that in fifty years' time, the coast can still cope with the rising sea level and more forceful waves. The nature reserve will compensate for the negative impact of the Maasvlakte 2 port expansion.