A'dam to kick in €105m for new North Sea lock

The Amsterdam municipality wants to participate in the construction of a new sea lock at IJmuiden. The lock, which must be set in 2019, will cost nearly 890 million euro. Alderman Kajsa Ollongren of Economic Affairs announced today that Amsterdam wants to contribute a maximum of 105 million euro. The province of North Holland contributes 56 million euro. Most of the construction costs will be borne by the State. According to Ollongren, the new lock between the North Sea and the North Sea Canal is necessary because the current lock is almost too small. Ships are getting bigger because companies want to transport increasingly more cargo in each ship to cut costs. The lock would have been replaced in 2029 but according to the municipality, the province and the Amsterdam harbor company, this will be too late. The Central Planning Bureau and experts warned that the estimates of the growth in the number of large seagoing vessels are too optimistic. That would make the construction of the new lock less necessary.