Van Oord has been awarded the contract for the Perkpolder area development project.
The project, commissioned by RWS (the Dutch public works agency), concerns a new nature area situated outside the protection zone of the dikes in the Westerscheldt estuary (southwest Netherlands). The contract value amounts to more than EUR 12 million. The work will conclude in 2015.
Van Oord has been contracted to dam in the mound (the site of the old ferry docks), construct new and adapt existing dikes, and begin work on the new nature area. The mound will be raised to 10 metres above sea level, level with the dikes (NAP 10m).
The result will be an ecologically valuable nature area and an attractive landscape for residential and recreational use. The mound will serve as a bastion in the landscape. At a later point, 250 homes and a hotel will be constructed here. The project is intended to improve the features of the Westerscheldt estuary and to boost the local economy and community, which suffered after cancellation of the Kruiningen-Perkpolder ferry service in 2003.
[mappress]
Press Release, November 28, 2012