World’s largest sea lock approved for Amsterdam at €500m price tag

Funding has been rounded out and the construction of the new sea lock, to be the largest sea lock in the world, at the IJmuiden can begin. The project, including construction and maintenance, will cost about 500 million euros. The consortium responsible for the project - consisting of BAM-PGGM, VolkerWessels and investor DIF - made this announcement on Tuesday afternoon, Het Parool reports. Construction will be undertaken by VolkerWessels and BAM-PGGM. Van Oord and Boskalis will perform dredging as subcontractors. The consortium is not only responsible for the construction and design of the 70 meter wide sea lock, but also its financing and maintenance for 25 years. The official work at IJmuiden will start next year. Preparatory work, such as archaeological research on whether any WWII explosives still need to be cleared, will be done for the rest of this year. The sea lock is scheduled to be ready and operating in 2019. The municipality of Amsterdam will be paying 105 million euros of the construction costs. The province is contributing 58 million euros. The rest is being contributed by the consortium itself, a loan from the European Investment Bank and a loans from a consortium of banks.