North
The Noord is a nine-kilometer section of the main shipping route from the Rhine to the North Sea near Rotterdam in South Holland . In Dordrecht , the forks of the Waal branching Beneden Merwede ( German Lower Merwede ) into the flowing westward Oude Maas and the northward flowing Noord. The west bank of the Noord belongs to the island of IJsselmonde , its east bank to the island of Alblasserwaard . It finally forms the Nieuwe Maas with the almost equally large arm of the Rhine, Lek near Ridderkerk, flowing in from the east .
The generally northerly direction of flow can change due to the influence of the tides when there is little water in the Rhine. The Rietbaan waterway branches off at Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht and runs parallel to the Noord. In between lies the island of Sophienpolder . There are several scrapping companies on the Rietbaan. There used to be many shipyards along the Noord .
The Noord flows through an almost contiguous urban landscape in the southeast of the Rotterdam agglomeration, consisting of the towns of Zwijndrecht , Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Papendrecht , Alblasserdam , Kinderdijk and Ridderkerk.
As part of the Reichswegplan from 1927, the bridge over the Noord was built near Alblasserdam in the course of Rijksweg 15 in 1939 . A tunnel has been crossing under the Noord since 1992; the old bridge is only used for local traffic. Between Alblasserdam and Papendrecht, the Betuweroute railway line runs in the Sophientunnel under the Noord, the Sophienpolder and the Rietbaan. With ramps, it is over eight kilometers long.
Web links
- Noord Rijkswaterstaat (Dutch)