Maeslantkering: Testing a Storm Surge Barrier

[Nerding, not kayaking]

Once a year, Rijkswaterstaat does a test closing of the Maeslantkering, a massive storm surge barrier on the waterway that connects Rotterdam to the ocean (the Nieuwe Waterweg/the Scheur). Check out the structure in Google Maps. Rijkswaterstaat is the government agency that oversees flood protection in the Netherlands by building and maintaining the complex and highly managed system of rivers, lakes, coastlines, pumps, and flood protection structures. This is necessary because more than 25% of the country is below sea level (protected by dikes). This was one of the last projects within the 50-year Delta Works, a massive flood infrastructure project triggered by the devastating 1953 floods that killed almost 2000 people.

We (Elizabeth, Toni, Sander, Maria, and I) biked the 20+ km from Delft to the Maeslantkering on Sunday afternoon to attend the annual test closure. It's quite the event, with europop music and hoards of politicians in fancy suits. Civil engineering students give guided tours every 10 minutes throughout the afternoon. We took a tour and picnicked on the adjacent hillside with the rest of the crowd.

Panorama of the partially closed barrier, and the hillside of observers. Click to see larger!

Elizabeth and Sander enjoying some good Dutch beer before the closing

Here are some fun facts that we learned during our tour of the Maeslantkering:

• It's painted white so it doesn't expand as much in the hot sun (14-16 cm when white vs ~ 40 cm when black)
• Dimensions: ~25 m high and ~240 m long (like laying the Eiffel tower on its side)
• It rotates on a 10 m "joint" sphere, which is manufactured to 2mm accuracy and lubricated by a plastic polymer (after it started getting stuck on the original teflon layer).
• Constructed between 1991 and 1997
• It still uses same software as when it was built - very simple.
• A computer decides when to close the barrier, and closes when water levels reach 3m above normal levels. Therefore, the closures are triggered automatically to prevent emotions/politics from interfering in its function.
• The closure trigger level (3m) is based on an agreement between many parties, and is expected to result in a closure roughly once every 10 years. With 50 years of sea level rise, this will increase to once every 5 years. So far, the barrier has been closed due to storm surge once, in 2007.
• Every day that the barrier is closed it costs the economy ~$15M in lost income from shipping

How does it work?
The two arms rotate from each side of the river, at a rate of 3 m/minute, until they are ~1 m apart. This small gap just considered a leak. Water is pumped into both arms to fill them with water, lowering them towards the river floor. Then, it pauses for ~1 hour before lowering completely, to allow flow to flush out the track underneath (water moves faster when most of the flow is blocked). This is part of the maintenance, to make sure the tracks don't fill up with sediment permanently. Then, more water is pumped in and the arms lower to the bottom of the river, stopping almost all flow. This animation makes it a bit clearer:

Photo credit

This structure is an improvement on many of the other storm surge barriers in the Netherlands because it lets the river be completely open most of the time. This allows tides and salt water to come in and out, which allow coastal and wetland habitats to exist. However, it still requires having a very controlled mouth of the river, rather than giving the river space to meander/evolve naturally. This works in a place like Rotterdam, which is already highly developed and engineered, but would be a detriment to more natural systems. 

Looking down the north arm, towards the ocean.

View of the closed barrier, from the back.

View of the closed barrier, from the front

We took a much longer route home, making a stop in Hoek van Holland on the coast and biking through the dunes until we reached the town of Monster (yes....) and turned inland towards Delft. Soreness ensued.

Leie River in Ghent, Belgium: from Pastures to Centrum

Blog post by Nena, Bridget’s comments in [italics]. This post is too long... you might want to look at the photos and skip to the part about the canal swim incident. Also, Stijn has some additional photos here!

On Friday morning we awoke to the hamster wheel (a common occurrence in Belgium) at Nonkle Jan’s and Tante Els’s house in Bierbeek (Beertown).  The day prior we had gone for a long walk through the fields and orchards with Els, Ona, and Ides. Ides decided to bike, but the past weeks’ rain had saturated the trails. The back wheel whipped up mud on his shirt, and he spent the next hour whining about doing the laundry (quite a responsible whine for an 11 year old). We passed orchard after orchard of pears and apples, eating a piece of fruit at each until we were nearly sick. Delicious! Two weeks ago, Russia stopped buying pears from the Belgians due to the Ukraine conflict, so the trees were still lush with ripe pears. The Belgian government is trying to convince the citizens to eat a pear-a-day to help the farmers.

After a huge pasta-veggie dinner, Bridget and I sipped wine while we watched my first Design of Coastal Structures lecture online. [Nena’s aunt cut me off after I missed my mouth while trying to drink sparkling water]. Ok, back to Friday.

Els dropped us off at the Leuven train station, with 30 minutes to spare before our train to Ghent. We cleverly decided to catch the earlier train. We soon realized that this was the local train, which takes approximately twice as long, resulting in a 30-minute late arrival in Ghent. We met my Bay Area kayaking friend, Stijn, who was patiently waiting at the station. Stijn and I are both members of the Bay Area Sea Kayakers and met at Berkeley Kayak Polo. He’s from Belgium and still spends a portion of his time working on art installations here. [He gets paid to design tree houses in Italy.]

With Bridget hidden stealthily in the back of the cargo van [stuffing my face with an Italian sandwich I was supposed to save for lunch], Stijn drove us to a launch site south of the city, in Drongen, where the kayak rental company (PONAS) had parked the trailer near the Leie River. Three yellow river-running white water boats (Taifuns) were perched on the top of the otherwise empty trailer. We waterproofed our cell phones (plastic bags with no ziplock), loaded up a plastic drum that served as a dry box, and launched before a massive group of kids on tiny sit-on-tops had a chance to take over the canal. The white-water flair of these kayaks immediately manifested itself as we struggled to maintain a straight course up the channel [major understatement]. While awesomely purple, our paddles weighed at least 100 lbs and the task ahead was daunting.

There was no obvious flow in the channel. Stijn informed us that it connects a river to another channel, and while it experiences some tidal influence (this surprised me – I had forgotten how close we were to the coast), it was not large enough to notice in our paddling. We headed north, towards the city. Initially, the channel was lined with perfectly manicured lawns [mowed by automatic drone lawnmowers] and well-windowed mansions. Stijn remarked that he felt a twinge of claustrophobia in this overly-developed narrow channel, and we agreed that grassy lawns are terrible things.

Bridget taking her 4th nap of the day, and Stijn stressing about the manicured lawns.

The next stretch was rural, with pastures, corn, and other crops. Every ten minutes a massive yacht passed by, leaving little room for us to fit our boats. Bridget set the tone for the day by placing herself in the middle of the channel every time a massive tour boat or yacht came around the bend [I swear they were trying to hit me]. After a couple pee breaks (Stijn found a scenic grove of trees and Bridget and I chose a highway underpass), we arrived at a sign pointing to Ghent Centrum. We also asked a canal-side pedestrian for directions, but he pointed repeatedly in both directions, resulting in more confusion than assistance.

We soon tired of our overly-responsive kayaks and heavy paddles, happily arriving in Gent Centrum at 1:30pm. Our pace slowed a bit as we stopped to take photos of the churches, bridges [Nena accidentally wrote Bridgets, but I had to correct this], and other scenic architecture. As we approached, the tourist boats multiplied and we found ourselves weaving between crowds of tourists who photographed us rather than the gorgeous old buildings that define the city.  We saw only one other kayaker in a racing boat (with admittedly terrible form). Narrow stone staircases punctuated the rock walls that lead up to the adjacent sidewalks. Since the stairways are inset and are not as wide as our kayaks, it took a bit of maneuvering to get out of the boats [It was not that hard].

Entering Gent Centrum, under Jakobijenstraat 

Stijn explaining something emphatically

Bridget admiring Sint-Niklaaskerk

Disembarking kayaks: a great success!

First order of business: fries and beers. Stijn directed us to a narrow alleyway where Bridget and I found a little “frietkot” (fry shack) while he stayed to watch the kayaks (you’re not really supposed to unload your kayaks in the middle of the city center…). We ordered 3 portions of fries, 3 sauces, and 3 beers, which generated quite the ruckus from the impatient locals behind us.  We spent an hour or so snacking on fries, people watching, and napping (on Bridget’s part, of course).

Little yellow kayaks in front of some of the oldest buildings in Ghent

Pommes frites! Photo by Stijn S.

Next order of business: loosen our PFD straps to accommodate fry/beer-bellies, launch without falling in front of hundreds of curious tourists, and kayak towards the CASTLE. Yes, we kayaked to an ancient castle [and played kayak polo with a green floaty ball that Stijn found in the moat of the castle]. It's called Gravensteen (the Count's Castle), was built in 1180, and later served as a courthouse and prison. There wasn’t too much to be seen, other than Rapunzel’s hair, an overgrown moat, and some Dutch lovers sitting romantically in a grassy patch.

Conquering the castle. Photo by Stijn S.

WiFi in the canal. Onlookers amused/confused/angry? Photo by Stijn S.

We continued on a side channel until we arrived at an all-too-common impasse: the lock. The water level on the other side was significantly lower, and signs warned us from getting too close to the overspill. Exhausted, we turned around and paddled towards the agreed-upon take-out, where the kayak dude was supposed to meet us an hour later. Stijn’s friend’s house is on the same channel [and he happened to have the key to it], so Stijn suggested we spend our spare hour having some tea/coffee. Stijn got out of his kayak into the nearest stairwell, and Bridget was up next. She turned to push herself up onto the narrow rock surface when we heard a “PLOP” and “SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT” from Bridget [I’m pretty sure I said F**k]. Her brand new iPhone was sinking to the bottom of the channel. She got that look in her eye, and we knew she was going in. SPLASH – Bridget was in the channel. A long minute later she emerged, dripping cell phone in hand, to a crowd of 25 concerned tourists, who collectively groaned when they saw the wet cell phone. Unsure of whether to laugh at the ridiculous situation or make sympathetic statements, I kept my mouth shut. We dragged the boats up and quickly hid ourselves in Stijn’s friend’s apartment, just across the channel.

Bridget sipping vodka at the sliding glass window, overlooking the kayaks. Don't fall out!

Stijn provided Bridget with a few shots of vodka: one to pour on her bleeding foot, which had picked up a shard of glass in the ruckus, one for warmth, and one to forget. One hot shower later [On my part, after Stijn made a comment to his friend in Dutch that he though I was gross for not taking one], we enjoyed the view from a massive window, which opened the entire wall. We sat, legs dangling over the canal below.  [Not really sure if it was supposed to support that much weight, but we survived. Also, there were more stuffed birds in the architect friend’s house, but Nena did not think it worthy of taking a picture, and I could not due to my saturated phone, which we stuffed in a bag of open rice we found in the house]. Stijn said “It used to be much colder here,” and I (naturally) responded, “oh, because of global warming.” Bridget and Stijn responded with faces aghast/rolling eyes. “No nena, because he installed insulation in his house.” Ok, so we did just discuss that a moment earlier…

The end of the day, at Rabot

Rabot towers, in older times. We paddled under the bridge and disembarked our kayaks there (see photo above). Photo thanks to NL wikipedia

Arno and Miyako (who is studying in Ghent) came to meet us, and we went for a drink at a café near the train station. We drank a variety of Dutch drinks, like apple beer, fresh mint tea, coffee, and fruit soda. 

Date: Friday, August 29th, 2014

Duration: ~ 5 hrs

Distance: ~ 11 miles (!)

Part 1: Baarledorp to the inner ring of Ghent

Part 2: Inner ring to Centrum Ghent (where the castles and churches are)

Day 17: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (no kayaking...)

Last night we crossed the Eastern/Central time zone and realized it was much later expected, so we pulled over and camped in the Squirrel Rapids Picnic Area, halfway between the Apostle Islands (WI) and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (MI). We were up early to the sound of lawn mowing all around us. After a quick stop at a farmstand for veggies and breakfast, we drove across much of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the UP) on Route 28. 

At Pictured Rocks we attempted to find a campsite at the Twelvemile Beach Campground (I'm pretty sure this is where Marika and I stayed 3 years ago), but all the sites were full (on a Monday!). Instead, we headed a bit further east to the Upper Hurricane River campground and snagged a big site where we cooked up an extravagant veggie-full burrito lunch. 

Our site at Upper Hurricane River campground

Food coma overtook us and I sprawled out on the beach for an hour while Jeff went exploring (food comas affect us all in different ways). One lesson I've learned on this trip is that I am no longer capable of reading a novel. Goal #10 for my year of sabbatical: manage to finish reading a novel without falling asleep.

 

Excited about clean hair

We decided to stop being beach-bums and drive to Grand Marais, passing Grand Sable Lake on the way. West Side Diner had immediate ice cream potential. Immediate sensory overload overcame us upon entering the diner. Shelves of steaming baked goods were interspersed with quality touristy trinkets. The diner was busy, so we sat at the counter in the diner car before eventually ordering (1) apple crumble with vanilla ice cream, (2) cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting, (3) chocolate ice cream. Yes, we were craving sugar. Day 16 was clearly lacking in calories, because sugary things were on our minds all day. 

Sucker River Lagoon outlet

Feeling slightly sick, we decided to get some exercise. First, we drove to Sucker River Lagoon, at the end of a long residential road, and went for a brief beach walk. We had to hop over a few Private Property signs to reach the beach. Next, we hiked to Sable Falls and the adjacent beach (very easy hike down massive new staircase) before walking the Grand Sable Dunes trail and taking silly shadow photos from the top of the massive dunes. The dunes here are made of incredibly fine orange-reddish sand.

Grand Sable Falls

Dune slide at the end of the Grand Sable Falls trail

We then made another U-turn to Grand Marais to have a beer and people-watch at the Lake Superior Brewing Company. We impulsively decided to visit the Log Slide – the essence of which eluded us. A brief walk through the woods brought us to a massive steep sandy cliff where logs used to be slid down a wooden chute to the lake. Rumor has it that the chute was so long that extensive friction caused it to catch fire. To the east were massive untouched sand dunes basking in the warm evening sun. Signs everywhere warned of dune collapse that buried and suffocated previous visitors. It said “it takes 5 minutes to get down and over an hour to get back up.” Needless to say, we did not go down.

View of massive dunes from the Log Slide Outlook

Now we’re back at camp – I chopped veggies for a breakfast stir-fry and Jeff made a campfire that we are now enjoying. We are a little sad that we did not sea kayak here, but the rental shops were expensive and far away. Kayaking on Lake Michigan tomorrow!

Day 14: Floating the Missouri River and a Tour of Bismarck

Another early start. After a quick bagel breakfast with Devin and Ginny, during which Devin attempted to make espresso with a broken machine (no luck, resulting in another steamer), I hopped in the car and headed east: destination Bismarck. I only made a brief stop in the Badlands (Medora, ND), where the gas station attendants were amused by my inability to operate an old-fashioned gas pump. 

The Badlands, with bugs on the window

The confusing gas pump

My friend Ruthie, who I met in the Bay Area a few years ago, grew up in Bismarck and just moved back home a few weeks ago. Her family lives next to the Missouri River. I tried to find the house using Google maps, to no avail – there were a few forks in the dirt road that Google hasn't creepily figured out yet, so Ruthie kindly gave me good ol’fashioned directions. I set up my tent in the yard and chatted with her young nephew about Legos. 

Tent in the yard near the Airstream that Ruthie is renovating

Ruthie and I went for a short but beautiful paddle along the river, putting in next to the house and paddling upstream until the thunderclouds became more ominous. 

A side channel of the Missouri River that passes near Ruthie's house

Her brother shared some fresh pesto pasta with us before we headed into town to feed her friend’s cute dog. Just as we were preparing to pick Jeff up at the airport he texted, “I just landed… in Denver.” Apparently his flight was unable to pressurize the cabin air, resulting in an immediate return to Denver. Naturally, a flood of logistics unveiled in which he would be re-routed to Fargo the next morning. This would let me make more progress on the road-trip and allow us to pick up the rental kayak on time on Saturday. Jeff was later informed that while he could not be re-booked on the next flight to Bismarck (a couple hours later), his suitcase was on its way to Bismarck. Since this was apparently inflexible, he negotiated with the agents to let me pick up the bags in Bismarck.

In the mean time, Ruthie took me on a lovely tour of downtown Bismarck. We stopped for beers at the Laughing Sun Brewing Company, where I sipped a strawberry ale and she tried the brown ale. On the way home we stopped in at the old train station (bottom right photo), which was converted into a mexican restaurant when passenger trains stopped passing through Bismarck. We stopped into the local record store to say hi to Ruthie's friends before returning home.

Date: August 1st, 2014

Distance: 1.5 miles

Time: ~30 mins

Day 5: Drizzly Columbia River Gorge and Oregon Brew Fest

Short post for Day 5... Wednesday morning began slowly. Mike, Juliette, and Simeon left for their respective jobs and daycares, and I found a coffee shop with delicious lattes. I met up with Juliette for lunch around noon (attempting to act like a local by taking bus), and we had a tasty frittata and soup at F&B cafe. It was a quick lunch because Juliette had to get back to work. I waited under an awning (it was raining!) until Dan picked me up to go on an afternoon hike. We drove out to the Columbia River Gorge and visited a couple waterfalls: a 2-mile hike to see Latourell Falls (bottom left) and a shorter hike to see Bridal Veil Falls (bottom right).

On the way back to Portland, we stopped to photograph a beautiful view of the Gorge, below. The gas tank hovered around empty, but we made it to a gas station in Troutdale just in time. The station attendants pump the gas here, which never fails to surprise me.

In the evening Mike, Ju, Simeon, and I went to the Oregon Brew Fest (it was opening night) in downtown Portland. Simeon danced to the music, we went for a stroll along the Willamette River, and I met one of Mike's friends from his previous job.

Bikes and Hikes in Colorado (Jeff's story)

My friend Jeff Buchman (we go way back - to being aspiring kayak bums at BayCreek 10+ years ago!) describes a short weekend in November when I visited Colorado, where he lives. 

[Nena's comments in italics.]

Saturday, November 16th:

Nena arrived in Denver around 10:00 and we immediately headed up to Fort Collins with two bikes on the car for brunch and brewery tours. We decided to have brunch at Snooze, a local chain that specializes in creative and delicious breakfast and lunch foods. Since there was a 20 minute wait and Nena was hungry from her flight we wandered down to the food co-op and got some wasabi peas as an appetizer [I'm going through a meaaan wasabi kick lately]. On the way back to Snooze we also decided that stopping at the candy store would be a good way to balance out the spice of the peas. Once seated we did order actual food with Nena opting for the Late Harvest Benny (Wilted Swiss chard, fennel and leeks served atop goat cheese and herb polenta cakes with poached Niman Ranch eggs, cream cheese hollandaise and toasted pine nut crumb) and I went for the traditional corned beef hash. Breakfast over, we went to Brian and Emily’s house where we met their chickens and fed them from our hands, with mixed results. [It stabbed me!!]

We headed out on the bikes to visit a few of the dozen or so breweries scattered across Fort Collins. The first stop is the best know: New Belgium Brewery. While we were not able to take the tour (reservations have to be made well in advance), we enjoyed the tasting room and tried a wide variety of beers. The two most interesting ones we sampled were the coconut curry beer that tastes more strongly of Indian food than I ever expected and the sour beer, which I actually like but have been told is an acquired taste [grossss]. When we went back to the bikes to head over to the Odell Brewery we discovered that Nena’s bike fell victim to a goat’s head thorn which has flattened at least eight of my bike tires since moving here [bikes always seem to break the first time I ride them... hmm...]. Brian returned home to fetch the car while Nena, Emily, and I walked our bikes the short distance to Odell’s. We sipped beers on the patio until it started to get too chilly. We crammed two bikes and 4 people into Brian's Subaru Forester and headed home for some amazing home-cooked vegetable enchiladas a la Brian and Emily.

Brian, Emily, Nena, and Jeff posing for a cheesy tourist photo :)

Sunday, November 17th:
It was a brisk yet sunny fall day in Boulder when Nena, Brian, Emily, Katrina the dog, and I decided to go climb a mountain and see some snow because we are in Colorado and that’s what you do. The first hike we tackled was Green Mountain West Ridge Trail starting at Flagstaff Road. We weren’t sure we would be able to do this hike since Flagstaff Road was seriously damaged in the massive September floods, but luckily it had opened up the day before. While the hike is relatively short (2.5 miles, round trip), it has a considerable amount of vertical gain and a starting elevation of about 7,000 feet higher than Nena’s typical 0-30 feet above sea level [subtly telling my I'm out of shape.]. The hike starts on a fairly narrow section of trail, meandering along a ridge through pine forests dusted in snow (the ski resorts 1.5 hours west got 17” of snow that day). The climb begins with the trail pitching up sharply for 375 feet in about ¼ of a mile with some small scrambles and roughhewn stairs along the way. The top of Green Mountain was breezy, but protection from the rocks allowed us to sit and admire the view of Colorado’s Front Range [Colorado is so pretty!]. Being an out and back trail, the return to the car was eerily similar but much more down than up. Back at the car, we enjoyed avocado and drunken cheese sandwiches before heading on to the second hike of the day.

Only a few miles down the road, in the Walker Ranch Open Space overlooking Eldorado Canyon, our second hike featured more wind and less climbing. We decided to keep this hike a bit shorter, at 1.7 miles, as the loop trail is 10 miles and the snow/mud mixture made hiking into the creek bed a bit slippery. Katrina, the suburban dog, faced the frequent mountain bikers with curiosity and fear. We were able to see a train slowing climbing Eldorado Canyon to the continental divide about 30 miles to the west. With sunset approaching, and a persistent wind, we decided it was time to head back to Boulder. [Brrrrrr]

Total Distance Hiked: 4.2 miles

- Jeff Buchman