About us

Gems of Rijkswaterstaat

The Netherlands is known worldwide for its water projects. As a country below sea level, we have developed innovative structures to protects us against the sea and the tides. Here we showcase some of our most prestigious projects: our gems.

The Maeslant Barrier

  • Afsluitdijk

    For over 80 years the Afsluitdijk is protecting our country from the sea. We are now reinforcing the dyke to meet current requirements for flood protection.

  • Eastern Scheldt Barrier

    The Eastern Scheldt Barrier is 9 km in length and it is the largest of the Delta Works. Its 62 sluice gates can be closed if extreme high tide is expected.

  • Maeslant Barrier

    This is an exceptional flood barrier: it has the largest movable parts than any other barrier in the world. Each door is 210 m in width and can be closed fully automatically.

  • Room for the River

    To cope with high water levels, we need to give room to the rivers. On 30 locations we have relocated dykes, lowered floodplains and deepened navigation channels.

  • Houtribdijk reinforcement

    Over a length of 25 km, we are reinforcing this dyke with sand. After the reinforcement the Houtribdijk can withstand a severe, once-in-a-ten-thousand-years storm.

  • Marker Wadden

    The goal of the engineering project Marker Wadden is to create a new group of islands from sand, clay and sludge from the Markermeer lake. This amongst others to improve the water quality.

Underlying pages