The immersion of a tunnel section under Het Scheur near Vlaardingen has been halted again. In the first part there was a leak last month, now a cable broke. Rijkswaterstaat is investigating what went wrong and when work can be resumed.
Because the cable broke, the tunnel section collided with a temporary quay. The intention is that the colossus will be towed to another location for examination before 11.30 am tomorrow. Until then, shipping traffic will remain blocked.
The breaking of the cable is not clearly visible on the screen, but you can hear how the tunnel section collides with the quay:
The Maasdelta tunnel is part of the Blankenburg connection, the new A24 motorway. It must connect the A20 at Vlaardingen with the A15 at Rozenburg. The track is scheduled to open in 2024.
The new tunnel consists of two parts, which together are approximately 400 meters long, 40 meters wide and 7 meters high. There will be three lanes in each tunnel tube.
Second time
The sinking of the first tunnel section did not go smoothly last month either. At that time, more water ran into the structure than could be pumped out, causing a short circuit.
It took time to fix that, because divers had to remedy the problem at a depth of 30 meters. As a result, shipping traffic on the busy Nieuwe Waterweg was blocked for days.
This time several dozen people witnessed how things went wrong again. Before the operation, Rijkswaterstaat had set up large stands for interested parties, reports regional broadcaster Rijnmond.
It will be determined in the coming days how and when the immersion will be resumed. One of the reserve weekends that Rijkswaterstaat had scheduled for unforeseen circumstances, 14 or 28 May, may be used for this purpose.
- Construction of the second part of the Maasdeltatunnel postponed after a leak last week
- Leak fixed, Nieuwe Waterweg open again for shipping traffic
- New waterway shipping blocked until tomorrow due to leak in new tunnel
