Rijkswaterstaat announces intention to award construction of the new sea lock at IJmuiden

Rijkswaterstaat announces intention to award construction of the new sea lock at IJmuiden

(Translation of original Dutch press release of Rijkswaterstaat:) Utrecht, the Netherlands, 20 July 2015 – After a lifetime of almost 100 years, the Northern lock in IJmuiden needs replacement. Rijkswaterstaat (the Dutch Highways and Waterways Agency) intends to award the construction of the new IJmuiden sea lock, which is located at the entrance to the North Sea Canal, to the Consortium OpenIJ. After contract close, this consortium, consisting of BAM, Volker Wessels and DIF will be responsible for design, construction, financing and maintenance of the new lock for a period of 26 years.

A new, larger lock system will improve the accessibility of the port of Amsterdam and stimulate the local economy by offering space to the growing ships independent of the tidal levels. The new lock will be 70 meters wide, 500 meters long and 18 meters deep. Construction will start early 2016 and the new lock will be available for shipping at the end of 2019.


Cooperation

Rijkswaterstaat, the Province of North Holland, the City of Amsterdam and Port of Amsterdam NV work together in the realization of this new large sea lock at IJmuiden. The Municipality of Velsen is involved as legal adviser with regard to planning procedures.


Locks Programme

The new IJmond sea entrance  is part of Rijkswaterstaat’s Locks Programme. This program includes six projects: lock Limmel, 2nd lock Eefde, 3rd Beatrix Lock, IJmond sea entrance, sea lock Terneuzen and the Afsluitdijk.

OPENIJ is formed by the participants BAM, Volker Wessels and DIF. After contract close all construction activities will be carried out by BAM and Volker Wessels. The dredging activities will be carried out by subcontractors Boskalis and Van Oord.

Royal BAM Group is a European construction group with operating companies in its two business lines Construction and property and Civil engineering, and in the field of Public Private Partnerships. BAM is currently constructing two new sea locks in Antwerp (in joint venture) and Brunsbüttel. Worldwide BAM carries out specialist construction and civil engineering projects. BAM has 23,000 employees and revenues of EUR 7.3 billion (2014). www.bam.nl

VolkerWessels is a Dutch construction group with 120 operating companies. We have branches in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada/United States in three divisions: Construction & Real Estate, Infrastructure and Energy & Telecoms. VolkerWessels and its 15,000 employees have the right solution when it comes to living, work, mobility and energy & telecom. We develop, design, build, finance, manage, operate and maintain. We develop, design, build, finance, manage and operate. We do this for our stakeholders: customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers and society in general. VolkerWessels is a company that exploits opportunities and introduces sustainable innovations. www.volkerwessels.com

DIF is an independent Dutch investor in infrastructure projects which manages EUR 2 billion of funds. Through targeted investment funds DIF offers its investors access to highly qualified infrastructure projects that generate stable cash flows in the long term, such as public private partnership (PPP) and renewable energy projects. DIF is active in Europe, North America and Australia, and has offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Madrid, Toronto, Sydney and Luxembourg. www.DIF.eu

Further information will be available after contract close.