The view of the Maas will be different, but if all goes well, residents of the river area between Ravenstein and Lith will keep their feet dry in the future due to the dike reinforcements. The start of Meandering Maas, as the project is called to make the dikes higher and stronger, started on Thursday after years of preparations.
Dikes will be strengthened and raised over a length of seventeen kilometers. New dikes will also be added. The work should be completed in five years. Costs: 235 million euros.
The dike residents and people carrying out the dike reinforcement project drove past the work on Thursday by bus. As a starting signal, the first so-called sheet pile wall was driven into the ground. This enormous plate of seventeen meters of steel must prevent water from seeping under the dike in the future. The work on the dikes is necessary to prevent flooding during high water.
“The reason for us to move here was precisely the panoramic view.”
“We were just about to renovate our house when we heard about the dike reinforcement. Then we thought for a moment, is it still worth it,” says one of the residents. From his house he still has a beautiful view of the river landscape. After the dike reinforcement, at least half of that will be gone.
“That was a tough pill to swallow, it gave me sleepless nights. The reason for us to move here was precisely to be able to enjoy the panoramic view.” He is now at peace with the plan: “I think it will be a very beautiful area.”
The work is necessary to ensure that residents will continue to have dry feet during high water in the future. Dike Count Mario Jacobs of the Aa en Maas Water Board says that, due to climate changes, we must be prepared for more extreme weather and high water in the future: “If you are not careful and the dike fails, a lot of land will be flooded. “
Han van de Meer, who lives near the mill on the dike near Megen, also had concerns: “But I am also an engineer and then you look at it differently. Safety first. In the run-up you think: what is going on? to happen?” The work also has a great impact on this dike resident. “We have one bed and breakfast and thought: that won’t work if work takes place there.”
They have now turned necessity into a virtue and the bed and breakfast rented to a project manager from the Boskalis company, which is involved in the implementation of the project. Another house is temporarily rented to an ecologist.
