North Sea Canal

Our client
The North Sea Canal is the main navigable channel between the North Sea (at IJmuiden) and Amsterdam. Every year, more than 100,000 ships take this route. Van Oord has been contracted by the Department of Public Works and Water Management to improve access to the channel by carrying out dredging, earth-moving and marine engineering work.

Our work
Van Oord has deepened and widened a 20 km stretch of the navigable channel. In addition to dredging, Van Oord has improved access and safety for shipping in other ways in recent years. In 2007, it shortened the spit of land of Middensluis Island by 500 m, so that ships can quickly and safely manoeuvre to and from the North Sea Locks. It also removed an embankment at Zaandam that had survived the demolition of the Hemspoor Bridge and had proved to be a nuisance for ships.

The clean silt dredged from the North Sea Canal was deposited into the North Sea (1,555,000 m3). Slightly polluted silt was stored in pits excavated especially for that purpose in the bottom of the Canal (1 million m3). The sand (1.6 million m3) removed to create these pits was used to widen the A2 motorway. More heavily polluted dredging spoil - class 3 - was transported to dredging spoil disposal site De Slufter in Rotterdam (455,000 m3).

The result
Large ocean-going vessels can once again pass each other on their way to and from the ports of Amsterdam.