With the bad weather and the garden winterising completed there has not been a great deal to do. This project came just at right time to provide some home entertainment, which we could view at our leisure all dry and warm and with a cuppa from behind the windows. Sorta decadent, but of course could come up with endless suggestions and imagined solutions— just like we knew what we were talking about. It’s taken weeks and weeks, but finally the job has been completed. As you all surely know, we are a water land with a great deal of our country; having been reclaimed, still below sea-level. To keep our feet dry, we use an elaborate system of water channels to gradually move the water from the lower areas to higher areas and finally out to sea. Part of this system maintenance includes replacing rotting water edging. This is necessary to contain erosion. The water maintainers were busy with the canal and small lake between our home and the park. It was a big job, but as we here could all see, very necessary. Here then, is a little pictorial series showing their working technique. To begin with the early stages. BTW, the sidewalk and hedge are atop a dike. The dike runs directly under our front door and lobby and out the other side. It is an old dike built 1576: What you can see above — old planks and poles first removed and deposited on the bank. The pontoon- like platform that the machinery is working from. There are also some long, black sheets of edging that the chaps will work into the mud. Next, you can see how the metal basket at the end of the machinery’s arm is used to press the long pole into the mushy canal bottom. Further, once the piles have been driven and the edging screwed into them, the root-cloth looking material is pressed down into the gap. The gap will be backfilled later. It helps to keep the soil from the bank from sliding into the canal. Then, these workers are double-checking to see if the facing was in the correct place. You can see him holding that white staff which communicates with a survey tripod back up under the bridge just out of sight to the left. They are spraying-down the place...sort of cleaning-up after each days’ work. Finally then, today I took a snap showing their finished work on this one, small segment of the repaired trajectory. It looks pretty scarred and awful, doesn’t it, that bank. Well, normally there is gunnera that grows there. I’m interested to see if it has survived all the scraping and pressures exerted on the bank. It is interesting to think that back in 1576 when the dike was laid, all the park and trees that you see now across the water did not exist. It was covered by the wild Zuyder Zee.
Amazing, simply amazing! The knowledge, the inventiveness, the sheer will to prevail--amazing! I had no idea of how much work, so much engineering, so much skill went into preserving the dikes and canals. Thank you for sharing this very interesting and informative post.
A very interesting post indeed Sjoerd. Your pictures remind me of where some friends of ours live. They are in De Bilt, Utrecht, and the road that runs parallel to theirs has the name Soestdijkseweg Zuid written on it. There is a dike running alongside the road and a wooded parkland behind it. Do you know this area?
Jane, I am so delighted that you liked the posting. You are right that there is a lot of work involved in maintaining our waterways—they are essential to us, and therefore of paramount importance. The basis of the work is the precise engineering, same goes for maintenance. Tetters, I am also happy that you enjoyed this thread as well. Of course I know Utrecht and De Bilt. We have been there, but I do not know it well by any means. They are a bit far from us. If you follow the dijk and road far enough you will come to a town called Baarn and the Soestdijk Palace.
I did. It seems to be 20 minutes by car, and it looks like the A27 is the best route. I have been to ''August Janssenweg'' and it all looks so very pretty. The gardens reach right down to the water. The more google takes me to the Netherlands the more I would like to visit. I met so many lovely people from there who were using the camping site. One day maybe. The Soestdijk Palace looks very grand! (it's not yours is it)
I shall have to check my real estate portfolio, but I think that the little pile may belong to someone else. Hang on while I give my group of solicitors a quick call.
Hurry up then, so I can book a suite ................as long as there's somewhere to park my bike of course.
Sjoerd thanks for sharing that, I know that it can be very entertaining watching that sort of thing. It looks good what they have done.
When I visited and saw the dykes I really didn't appreciate all the work that had to be done to maintain them. Such feats of engineering!! Thanks for the photographs - really interesting.
You are welcome Eileen. So much thought and care must be taken because we have to keep our feet dry. Glad you liked that, Loggie. I really could watch that sort of work for hours.
