
The Afsluitdijk - jacquesm
https://theafsluitdijk.com/
======
Freak_NL
Less commonly known facts about the Afsluitdijk:

The plans for the dyke originally included a railway line. This never
happened, but the idea has resurfaced frequently in the past century.

The Afsluitdijk was also a defensive structure, part of the defence of Holland
(the collective name of the two provinces that are home to the government and
a large part of the population). When the Germans invaded, the Afsluitdijk
fortress with its concrete fortifications (called _kazematten_ ) and
strategically advantageous position actually held, i.e., it never fell under
combat, despite attempts to overtake it. The Germans went round the other side
of the IJsselmeer and the Netherlands capitulated before the Wehrmacht could
take the position.

The Kazematten museum on the dyke can be visited, and should appeal to all
military aficionados.

~~~
Freak_NL
The defensive position at Kornwerderzand can still be seen clearly on
satellite imagery and maps:

[https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/53.0706/5.3351](https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/53.0706/5.3351)

The bunkers covered the approaches by sea and dyke quite well from the piers
extending into the sea and lake.

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KaiserPro
For those interested in what it protects:
[https://i2.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thu...](https://i2.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/NL-
Zuiderzeeworks.svg/507px-NL-Zuiderzeeworks.svg.png?ssl=1)

Also, this enclosure lead to former islands being enclosed by new land:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schokland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schokland)

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cpa
For those wondering:
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Afsluitdijk,+Netherlands/@...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Afsluitdijk,+Netherlands/@51.3520723,3.0521375,7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xde55492a1d1fe71!8m2!3d53.0313172!4d5.226658)

Only after looking at the map did I realize how big it actually is.

~~~
Freak_NL
Or if you want a more detailed and up-to-date map:

[https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=10/52.9846/5.1904](https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=10/52.9846/5.1904)

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tda
Currently the afsluitdijk is undergoing a major upgrade. The hydraulic tests
(scale 1:2) have just about been concluded. Unfortunately not too many videos
are public, but found this short one
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=58W6870d1PM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=58W6870d1PM)

~~~
vesinisa
The video says scale 1:3, but still impressive.

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kalium_xyz
The afsluitdijk allows for saline sea water right next to clean fresh water
due to the rivers ending in the ijselmeer displacing the seawater form the
inland sea. I wish the Dutch government would fund projects like redstack
which try to generate energy from the saline difference on the afsluitdijk
while they renew things. It seems so much easier to do both infrastructures at
once (redstack and blue energy as a whole is still expirimental though).

~~~
tom_mellior
From the featured page: "At the Afsluitdijk we are using water currents and
the confluence of fresh and salt water to produce energy."

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desdiv
One of my favorite Youtube channels, The Tim Traveller, did a video on this
dam/highway:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r6zcMl2Xmw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r6zcMl2Xmw)

~~~
Kim_Bruning
That video was somewhat inaccurate :-/

~~~
vanderZwan
It helps if you explain in what way

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goodmachine
The geometry, hence tiling, of the concrete blocks used is quite interesting

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvUG6VNcNR0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvUG6VNcNR0)

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yread
The craziest fact about it is that mats of willow branches are a major part of
its internal structure. Sustainable rebar

~~~
mirimir
There's lots of wood under Manhattan and Philadelphia, too.

~~~
dekhn
Underground, by David Macauley, is a great book about what it's like
underground in Manhattan. [https://www.amazon.com/Underground-David-
Macaulay/dp/0395340...](https://www.amazon.com/Underground-David-
Macaulay/dp/0395340659)

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rapnie
From wikipedia:

> The Afsluitdijk (Dutch: [ˈɑfslœydɛik] English: "Enclosure Dam") is a major
> dam and causeway in the Netherlands. It was constructed between 1927 and
> 1932 and runs from Den Oever in North Holland province to the village of
> Zurich in Friesland province, over a length of 32 kilometres (20 mi) and a
> width of 90 metres (300 ft), at an initial height of 7.25 metres (23.8 ft)
> above sea level.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk)

~~~
rapnie
Also interesting are the art projects that were created as part of the dam's
modernization project. Icoon Afsluitdijk: Lighting at zero consumption

[https://urbannext.net/afsluitdijk/](https://urbannext.net/afsluitdijk/)

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AllegedAlec
If people are interested in this sort of stuff:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works)
and
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuiderzee_Works](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuiderzee_Works)

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wcoenen
Would engineering be able to keep up with something like Meltwater Pulse 1A
[1], when sea level rose at 50mm/year? Could climate change cause another
pulse like that?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltwater_pulse_1A](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltwater_pulse_1A)

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merciBien
Truly impressive design and engineering work here! Not to mention the
commitment to the project.

~~~
tempodox
> ...commitment...

When 26% of your country lies below sea level you tend to be motivated ;-)

~~~
pinkfoot
Really? It hasn’t motivated Bangladesh.

~~~
Fnoord
Not _successfully_ , but it has motivated e.g. Japan to combat earthquakes
(with building design). On top of that, Bangladesh is a poor country.

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lucb1e
This is also new to me as a Dutchman: a bus for bicycles!

[https://theafsluitdijk.com/fietsbus-
dienstregeling/](https://theafsluitdijk.com/fietsbus-dienstregeling/)

~~~
jacquesm
I've done the Friesland->Noord Holland direction once against a force 5 wind
and I distinctly remember wishing for that bus to come into existence so there
you have it :)

(This was 30 years ago or so).

I cycled around the lake inside 24 hours, it was quite the trip.

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louwrentius
There is also a smaller version called the Houtribdijk:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houtribdijk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houtribdijk)

This dijk runs from the city of Enkhuizen to Lelystad and is about 30 KM in
length.

Instead of four lanes for traffic, it has only two lanes as it is not as wide
as the Afsluitdijk.

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SideburnsOfDoom
How does that fish migration route work?

Is it simply that the winding path means a slower flow from higher to lower
level? i.e. water at a gentle slope and thus slower flow?

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saagarjha
Any idea what this will cost? Also, unrelated, did anyone else notice that
this only uses letters from the home and top rows of the keyboard?

~~~
jorams
> Any idea what this will cost?

The budget for design, construction and 25 years of maintenance is ~€550
million.[1][2][3]

[1]: [https://www.cobouw.nl/infra/nieuws/2018/02/bam-van-oord-
en-r...](https://www.cobouw.nl/infra/nieuws/2018/02/bam-van-oord-en-rebel-
slepen-project-afsluitdijk-binnen-101258387) [2]:
[https://www.rebelgroup.com/en/projects/a-winning-plan-to-
rei...](https://www.rebelgroup.com/en/projects/a-winning-plan-to-reinforce-
the-afsluitdijk/) [3]: [https://deafsluitdijk.nl/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/presenta...](https://deafsluitdijk.nl/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/presentatie-stakeholdersbijeenkomst-RWS-en-
Levvel-18-05-2018-Compatibiliteitsmodus.pdf)

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foofoo55
The Dutch I've met pronounce it something like "UFF-sly-dike". Worth visiting
if you're in the area.

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yati
I like how the concept image of the new A7 highway prominently also shows bike
lanes with a couple of bikers :)

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aetherspawn
I thought this was going to be an ad for a keyboard layout.

~~~
hoistbypetard
I'm overly happy that I'm not the only one who thought that.

~~~
lucb1e
What about it makes it sound like a keyboard model? As a Dutchman I'm having a
hard time ignoring the real meaning and seeing what keyboard related thing it
resembles in English.

~~~
AndrewDucker
The middle row of a Qwerty keyboard starts asdfghjkl, and I think that to
people who aren't used to it that looks similar.

~~~
schoen
It even uses 7/9 QWERTY home row letters (asdfjkl) and only three non-home-row
letters (tui, all from the top row). That feels very credible as keyboard-
mashing output!

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fauigerzigerk
Speaking of Dutch engineering feats, I realise now that we kind of dodged a
bullet there in terms of pronunciation. The mutex could easily have been
called the afsluitdijkstra ;-)

~~~
52-6F-62
It’s the first part that’s hard! Dijkstra is easy and a pretty common name—at
least in Ontario, spelled Dykstra.

~~~
bitwize
When a Dutchman writes "ij", it looks like "ÿ".

~~~
tripzilch
Yeah especially when writing cursive. It's because it's technically one
character or something. It's even got its own unicode: ĳ

Not sure if it really counts as a ligature, though.

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blt
At first glance, I thought this was some humor post about an object with a
name made by randomly mashing keys...

~~~
z92
This post is in the front page of HN because of this initial confusion.
Otherwise that was no larger deal compared to other projects that are going on
around the world.

~~~
mcv
What's the confusion here? The site makes pretty clear it's about an
engineering project, doesn't it?

And there's plenty of cool about this project, from the reusable kingsize
lego-like blocks used to strengthen the dike, to the meandering river for fish
passing throuh the dike. There's also a VR video.

~~~
mpol
The passage for fish is highly needed. Eels are almost extinct in the
Netherlands. The adults are inside the country in sweet water, but they cannot
get out due to sluices and pump stations. They get slaughtered there.

They need to get out to sea to make a journey to make offspring. That
offspring sometimes gets caught in France on the way back, where it is grown
and sold in the Netherlands. Fishing results from IJsselmeer can also be found
in shops but they are not easy to catch anymore. I would think, for statistic
reasons, the caught eels in France might be more sustainable than catching
grown eels in the IJsselmeer. The real solution is to work out better sluices
and pump stations, so fish can pass again.

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fnenrjfkdke
Is this designed by the same people as
[https://ableton.com](https://ableton.com) I wonder... Definitely a similar
aesthetic.

