IJmuiden July Update: Sinking Operations to Start in August

Despite the delay in the construction of the IJmuiden sea lock reported this month, activities are continuing apace, Port of Amsterdam said in its latest release. 

According to the official announcement, July is devoted to construction work on the lock gate chamber of the outer head – the lock gate chamber on the seaward side.

Also in July, OpenIJ will be continuing with the tensioning operation on the anchors of the lock chamber walls and will also be working on the Lock Operation Center – known by the acronym “SOC”.

Outer head lock gate chamber

Right now, OpenIJ is busy preparing for the sinking of the outer head lock gate chamber (the seaward side one).

The sinking operations are expected to start in August, according to the update.

Sinking is the preferred method to bring the lock gate chamber to its final vertical position.

At present, the underside of the floor of the lock gate chamber lies 5 meters below NAP (NAP is Normal Amsterdam Level – roughly Mean Sea Level). The lock gate chamber will be sunk another 18 meters to a final depth of approximately 23 meters below NAP.

After the lock gate chamber has been sunk to its final position, two more vertical layers will be constructed on top of the present walls (this means around 7.20 meters of extra height).