Storm Surge Barrier in the Netherlands

For centuries The Netherlands has suffered a lot from floods. After the infamous flood of 1953 that killed nearly 2000 people and flooded more then 150.000 hectares of land, plans were made for a series of dams to protect the southwestern part of the country from the water. these plans were called the Delta-works.

The most impressive and costly project was the Eastern Schelde Dam. Originally it was designed to close off the Eastern Schelde river mouth turning it into a fresh water basin. Due to unexpected protests from environmentalists the dam was redesigned as an open dam with a number of sluices to maintain the saltwater environment. The sluices would only be closed during heavy storms and high water levels.

For the storm barrier 65 pillars or piers were constructed, among which 62 steel slides would be installed.

Each pillar consist of 7.000 cubic meters of concrete and measures between 30.25 and 38.75 meters high and weighed 18.000 tonnes.

The storm surge barrier was completed on June 26, 1986 and opened by Queen Beatrix on October 4, 1986.

For this project I created a section of the dam that includes 2 piers, a sliding door and a section of the road that goes along the dam. For this project I used 716 elements and can be easily expanded.

This marvel of Dutch water engineering needs to be build by you so let's make this happen.