Dutch engineering consultancies

 Various institutions of the Dutch government have been attracted to Dutchdam.

Novem was the first to offer support for the design and stimulated production with a generous subsidy (under TEMA regulations) for market research into the situations where it could be used to advantage. After NOVEM had made approaches to organisations such as RWS (Rijkswaterstaat: the Dutch Department of Public Works) and TNO (The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) they came to the following conclusion:

The Dutchdam has great significance for the environment and safety in the Netherlands.

Equipped with a number of his scale models, Corné Rijlaarsdam, whose idea it was in the first place, went to almost all the Dutch hydraulic engineering companies in the Netherlands and requested their opinion on his design.

This is what they had to say:

Arcadis (Arcadis/Heidemij)
stated that the application of mobile water defence constructions has already been studied for many years, because from the point of view of use of space and effectiveness there is a need for a mobile flood defence. The area of this application chiefly applies to defences against water in urban areas, where high-water situations produce the need for temporary facilities with a limited defence wall height, up to 0.80m, or a maximum of 1 metre.

DHV
also sees good possibilities for its application, because of the minimal use of space, the relatively simple construction and the simplicity in use. Furthermore it has advantages for the storing of water in a polder drainage pool system, and in erecting polder drainage quays as an alternative to raising the height of the quays. The cost of this folding standby flood defence should be able to compete with the cost of re-establishing a polder with the necessary compensation for flooding.

Geo Delft (together with Infram)
says that the concept of the Dutchdam can be utilised to raise the height of dikes.We know that raising the height of a dike uses up space, and that space is in short supply, and that often along the dikes there is a high value placed on the preservation of the landscape, on cultural and historical features and on nature conservation. In these circumstances there is certainly a future for concepts such as the Dutchdam.

Grontmij
were “of the opinion that the Dutchdam should be able to offer good possibilities as a moveable flood defence in those places where from a scenic or aesthetic point of view it would not be desirable to use an extra high static flood defence, such as a raised dike or a raised quay wall in a protected cityscape”. They also noted that there was the possibility of . using the Dutchdam as a barrier dam for breaches, or for water regulation in retention areas.

HKV
commented that “We see in the Dutchdam not only an innovative way of designing a flood defence but, with a few small modifications to its construction, the dam could be adapted to regulate overspill from river dikes. The overspill is used among other things for flooding the areas behind a river dike, but finding the correct time for starting and for stopping the flooding is extremely important for the measure to be effective.

Technical University, TU-Delft
Here the Department of Hydraulic Engineering has incorporated the Dutchdam into their study material.

Since the first impressions of how it could be used and the special characteristics of the design of the folding standby defence system things have moved on. Indeed since the beginning of 2002 hydraulic engineering plans using Dutchdam are under construction in various locations, both in the Netherlands and elsewhere.