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Maeslantkering (Maeslant Barrier)

The Maeslantkering is a storm surge barrier, which was built in the Rotterdam Port between 1991 and 1997. It is located at Hoek van Holland - on the New Waterway connecting Rotterdam with the North Sea. The construction of Maeslantkering was a part of the Europoort Project, which was the final stage of a series of projects in the southwest region of the Netherlands created in order to protect a large area of land from the sea, also called Delta Works. It consists of dams, dykes, locks, and barriers.

The construction consisted of two steel gates, which are 22 meters high and 210 meters long. They were placed in the dry docks on both shores held by special ball shaped joints. The joints are the largest in the world - each with a diameter of 10 meters and weight of 680 tons. These ball joints were manufactured at Škoda Pilsen, Czech Republic. The construction of the barrier cost 450 million Euro.

The main purpose of this barrier is to protect Rotterdam Harbour (Europoort) from flooding and make it safer for vessels. In the event of a heavy storm, if the storm surge reaches 3 meters above normal sea level, the docks are flooded and the gates begin to float, closing the river. Once they are closed, the gates are then flooded and sink to the bottom. The entire process of closing the doors takes approximately one hour and it is completely automated, manual labor force is not involved.

The closing of the gates has major impacts on vessel traffic to and from port. Four hours before the actual closing of the doors, all incoming and outgoing vessels are warned and the traffic comes to a standstill two hours before closing.