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On Monday, March 10, the new offshore installation vessel from Dutch company Van Oord arrived at TMA Logistics in the Port of Amsterdam. To reach its destination, the massive vessel—175 meters long and 63 meters wide—had to navigate through the world’s largest sea lock in IJmuiden, an impressive sight. In Amsterdam, the final outfitting and commissioning work will be completed before the Boreas departs for its first offshore wind project. So far, the Boreas is the widest vessel to have passed through the IJmuiden Sea Lock.

His Majesty the King officially inaugurated operation of the IJmuiden sea lock on Wednesday, 26 January 2022. With a push of a button, King Willem Alexander opened the inner door of the world’s largest sea lock from the Lock Operations Centre (SOC).

In the coming months, OpenIJ is working on the final stages of the construction of Zeesluis IJmuiden. This summer, OpenIJ delivers the largest sea lock in the world to Rijkswaterstaat. This will be followed by an extensive test phase of the lock gates (number 3 on the picture). Tests with sea-going ships are schedules as from October.

A larger lock means bigger ships and more salt water. The locking process creates large volumes of fresh or salt water flowing into or out of the lock and water turbulence may scour out holes near the inner and outer lock heads, undermining them.

The construction of Zeesluis IJmuiden is almost completed. Now that all the lock gates have been put in position, the area around the new sea lock is being prepared for its future use. During the preparation of the area, everything will be made ready for the opening of the lock.

In March 2021, the last two lock gates on the canal side were successfully installed. The whole operation lasted four days. Edgar Breedveld and Victor Arnolds were involved in this milestone achievement. They directed the positioning process and ensured a good outcome.