As Port of Amsterdam announced, during March and April work will be conducted to the exterior facade of the Lock Operation Centre. Engineering works and construction activities are still being carried out to heighten the walls of the inner lock head; whereas, builders are also busy with constructing the lock sill of the inner head.
Additionally, the concrete pouring operations to the floor of the lock sill cofferdam of the outer head have been completed.
The lock operation centre is still being built. The operations are carried out with the help of a crane and a hydraulic lift platform. The external facade will be given a special, irregular ribbed finish that will give the Lock Operation Centre the appearance of a weathered rock in the waves.
Also, the three lock gates arrived in the port at the end of January.
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One of the gates, is placed in a temporary location in the lock chamber at IJmuiden. The remaining two gates, have been towed to a quay of Open IJ’s logistics centre in the Alaskahaven in Amsterdam.
In order for their construction to be completed, the installation of hydraulic systems and all electrical installations are needed.
Moreover, open IJ is working around the walls of the lock gate chamber of the inner head.
The activities mainly have to do with the installation of reinforcement steel and concrete pouring operations.
In the near future, the port will proceed to preparations needed for the sinking of the lock gate chamber. The sand underneath the lock gate chamber (i.e. the caisson) will be loosened by water jets and pumped away. Therefore, because of its own weight, the caisson will sink in the ground.
Following the port’s constructions, builders of Open IJ are building the lock sill of the inner head.
The inner lock gate runs on rails fixed on the lock sill and are used for closing and opening. The lock sill is almost entirely circled by water, that’s why it’s difficult to reach.
In order to make its construction process easier, Open IJ has built a traverse on top of the lock sill cofferdam.
The traverse is a kind of mobile platform construction moving on rails on top of the cofferdam and a crane is placed on top of the mobile platform.
