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tsa · 07-26-2011, 08:34 AM

Last weekend I went to one of the great waterworks the Dutch are famous for: the Maeslant barrier. It's a ginormous barrier to keep the water out but only when the water is very high. Therefore they constucted two doors that can be closed and opened at will to shut off a 360 m wide opening and in that way make sure that no water from the North Sean flows up river and overflows the land. Here are some pictures. The problem is that the thing is so BIG that I couldn't get it on one picture.

Here's part of one arm:

And the other side. At the end you see the enormous door that closes half of the river, partly hidden beneath the surface. On the other side of the river there is a similar structure. Together they close the whole river and keep the water out if necessary.

This is the arm on the other side of the river. On the right you see the door, if you look closely. On the left there is a 10 m diameter ball that holds the whole structure in place. The ball can turn so the structure, which is as big as the Eiffel Tower, pivots around it and the barrier is closed. See the website for more information.

And of course there are more pictures on Flickr.

07-26-2011, 08:34 AM	#812
tsa Playing character Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Netherlands Posts: 7,472	Last weekend I went to one of the great waterworks the Dutch are famous for: the Maeslant barrier. It's a ginormous barrier to keep the water out but only when the water is very high. Therefore they constucted two doors that can be closed and opened at will to shut off a 360 m wide opening and in that way make sure that no water from the North Sean flows up river and overflows the land. Here are some pictures. The problem is that the thing is so BIG that I couldn't get it on one picture. Here's part of one arm: And the other side. At the end you see the enormous door that closes half of the river, partly hidden beneath the surface. On the other side of the river there is a similar structure. Together they close the whole river and keep the water out if necessary. This is the arm on the other side of the river. On the right you see the door, if you look closely. On the left there is a 10 m diameter ball that holds the whole structure in place. The ball can turn so the structure, which is as big as the Eiffel Tower, pivots around it and the barrier is closed. See the website for more information. And of course there are more pictures on Flickr. Last edited by tsa; 07-26-2011 at 08:39 AM.