World's Longest Dam

Hi Moose. I worked on this project for 4 years from 1988 to 1991. I was working for a hydraulics company in the Netherlands as an inspector/commisioner. We built and commisioned the hydraulics for the sluis gates, and I still travel there every year. There is a manmade island in the middle of the waterway, which of course helps to ease the huge pressure on the dam. The tide difference there is nearly 5 meters. When this structure was completed it was possible to drive or walk the complete length of the coast from north to south. On the island in the middle there is a museum telling the story of the construction, complete with models of all the equipent used. I tell people here in England that they should visit this 7th wonder of the engineering world as an example of how it is done. Spencer.

I expect you have how we in the USA build dams. Reference New Orleans, Build on the cheap and suffer the consequences.

Have you ever heard of the hoover dam-the levee (not a dam) that failed in New Orleans failed due to local govt. greed ie. the funds to build properly never reached the source!!! The Levees were built for a level 3 hurricane and Katrina was a full blown 5!!!

It's ago thing that the recent earth quake off the coast of southern England did not reach this structure. What if it had been damaged? Would it have led to a major flooding incident? Could such a disaster happen? Any dutch persons out there?

Hi BrainWave. After reading you post I phoned one of my Dutch friends who was an engineer on this monumental task. He said that one of their biggest nightmares was that an earthquake could possibly cause a lot of distruction to their sea defences. This of course would lead to wholesale drowning of the reclamed land and the deaths of thousands of people. One of the worst places to be hit would be the district of Rotterdam called Alexander plein, this area is 14 meters below sea level, the lowest land in the Netherlands, and home to 10,000 people plus a lot of factories and offices. He said that he pray's that such an occurance never happens. Spencer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirakud_Dam Hirakud Dam is the worlds longest Dam check out wikipedia for the same

Harry Shearer made me aware this past weekend on his Le Show program (audio interview with a local Louisianan archived at kcrw.org) that engineering and technical folks in the Louisiana area have started consulting with the Dutch, to improve the New Orleans levee system: http://www.dutchdialogues.com/.

I spoke to a Dutch engineer (aerospace flavor) working in Los Angeles when this was happening in 2005, and thought this might be a good idea, so it's good to see progress being made here. Thanks for letting me share this update. - Larry