INUNDATED
POLDER
project of world fame: the Zuider Zee reclamation project. This drastic
measure made available executive staff, workers and equipment to be
directed to the island of Schouwen en Duiveland, which had suffered most
heavily.
Contractors in action
The Netherlands contractors also girded themselves for action. In the
spirit of the Netherlands saying "Union is Strength" they combined to
drive out the hereditary enemy who had so cruelly devastated this garden
of the Netherlands. The arsenal which they took with them into battle
comprised 67 bucket and suction dredgers and 133 tugboats, equipment
built in the Netherlands but which has also acquired a first-class reputation
abroad. Further equipment brought up comprised 283 draglines and
cranes, 266 trucks and tractors, 56 bulldozers and dumpers, and 115
locomotives.
This organization was set into motion not against a human enemy,
but against a never-tiring, tenacious enemy fighting twenty-four hours a
day against human beings, who unlike their adversary required rest,
food and care.
The latter aspect involves problems with respect to housing and shift
work, victualing and recreation. Thus, the contractor must also be ac
quainted with the art of logistics, i.e. the art of transport, quartering and
supplies.
Foreign aid
At this stage the commercial apparatus came into action for the supply
of materials and in this respect the foreign aid received constituted an
important contribution.
For closing the breaches in the dikes the British Admiralty placed
eight Phoenix caissons type A-X at our disposal. These 7500-ton concrete
giants, which were built at the time for the construction of invasion
harbours off the coast of Normandy, were towed from Portsmouth to the
Netherlands by Netherlands sea-going tugboats.
The French railways provided ballasting materials for carrying out
repairs to the railways in the disaster area.
From Belgium and Germany came dumping and constructional stone;
brushwood was provided from own resources and supplemented with
supplies from Belgium and Germany.
In all some 17 million sandbags were used. Both in the initial and later
stages of the repair work this simple means often proved to be the only
way to achieve the object of closing dike gaps with the least possible delay.
Clay, the characteristic building material for dikes, became scarce in
the stricken area, but the problem was solved by the importation of clay
from Belgium and the use of asphaltic bitumen. Bituminous mixtures
for covering the dikes were obtained from the oil refineries in Rotterdam,
the centre of the European asphaltic bitumen industry.
Thus, it did not take long to build up an efficient apparatus ready for
carrying out the plans which had been drawn up.
The battle of the tidal gaps
Despite the plans quick improvization was again called for in the
initial stages so as not to give the enemy the opportunity of consolidating
his positions. The scouring action of the water in the sandy soil soon
transformed the initially small breaches into mighty tidal gaps, enabling
the ingress and egress of enormous quantities of water with each high
and low tide.
The largest tidal gap near Schelphoek in the south-west point of Schou
wen had a flooding capacity of 125 million cubic metresThe total number
of dike breaches was nearly 600, of which 67 were tidal gaps. Of the total
670 miles of dikes in the south-west part of the country some 300 miles
were damaged. At some points the dikes were completely washed away,
as was the case on the island of Flakkee, where a gap of 14 miles was made.
The tidal gaps in particular caused the most serious problems.
Three methods of closing tidal gaps
In principle, a tidal gap may be closed according to three different
methods, viz.:
1. By reconstructing the damaged dike along its original course, which
involves the closing of gullies.
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