Dredging industry
The dredging industry is a branch of industry that is particularly important in the Netherlands ( Dutch and Belgian companies control around 75% of the world market).
She deals worldwide with the dredging of ports , the construction of ports, dams , dykes , locks , piers , the embankment of water surfaces so that polders are created, and related works.
The dredging companies, such as B. Volker-Stevin and Smit-Tak from the Netherlands, are also involved in tug shipping and the salvage of shipwrecks and the construction of railways .
history
The Dutch began to protect their area from the water by dykes and dams in the Middle Ages .
In the 17th century , according to plans by Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater from Graft-De Rijp (1575–1650), they managed to dry out the lakes in North Holland : Purmer, Beemster, Wormer and Schermer, with the help of windmills . In this epoch, the Golden Age , there were already knowledgeable dike builders in Zuid-Holland in the area around Sliedrecht , east of Dordrecht . They grew willows in the moor , the tough, waterproof branches and twigs of which were harvested and braided. This "rijshout" ("brushwood") was, so to speak, the skeleton of the dike. It held on to the dredged clay. This made the dike relatively safe. Dike workers from this region were in high demand at home and abroad.
In the 18th century they developed better and better techniques, also for dredging shoals in rivers. In 1864 the building contractor Adriaan Volker from Sliedrecht used a dredger powered by a steam engine for the first time . In the 19th century , the Dutch government commissioned other large waterworks: the excavation of the North Sea Canal and the Nieuwe Waterweg for the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, respectively . This made the dredging industry a Dutch specialty. The dredged earth was used elsewhere as material for dikes and piers. Also in the Dutch East Indies, today's Indonesia , ports were built and repaired.
In the 20th century , the hydraulic engineer Cornelis Lely was a great proponent of the dike in the Zuidersee . The plan was actually implemented, the final dike was implemented in 1932 . This was followed by the polders of today's Flevoland province .
After the storm surge of 1953 , the Delta Works in the southwest of the Netherlands were taken into hand. The new techniques were always developed and applied. Huge ships and floating machines were built (see also the Museum Neeltje Jans in the province of Zealand).
In the period after 1973, when domestic demand was largely satisfied, Dutch specialists such as Volker-Stevin NV went abroad. In the Middle East and in East Asia giant port facilities have been dredged, and still are the example. Some of the companies still established in the area around Sliedrecht set the tone worldwide.
An exhibition about the history of this branch of business can be seen in the Sliedrecht excavator museum.