Open verdedigingswerk, Klopvaart

English translation

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Description

Cluster 29. Lock gate / inundation lock / check lock.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATER LINE

Introduction

LOCK GATE / INUNDATION LOCK / CHECK LOCK as a civil and military water engineering component of the Klopvaart complex. The defence system of the New Hollandic Water Line was principally based on the controlled flooding of (large) land areas. Controlled inundation required an ingenious system of water works, such as locks, weirs, waterways and canals, by means of which the water level could be set and maintained quickly and within narrow limits. The waterways and canals were often already present on site and required at most some adaptation. In the case of the Klopvaart this meant, amongst other things, the adaptation and new construction of lock works. At the mouth of the Klopvaart there had existed for centuries a small lock gate, as with several comparable waters that discharged into the Vecht. This was also the reason for the construction of a redoubt and later the building of a fort at this location: defence of this vital water work. In the last quarter of the 19th century the existing lock gate, which lay in the direct line of the waterway, was replaced by a newly constructed one. A short distance to the west, parallel to this, an inundation lock with a bridge over it was built. The lock gate could - thanks to provisions - also serve as an inundation lock and check lock; the pointed gates of the lock gate could not be opened against high external water levels. The lock thus acquired civil and military functions in connection with inundations and (military) traffic over water. Over the southern head of the lock lies a concrete bridge in the Vechtdijk with a low balustrade and low iron railing. The small lock gate was around 1980 largely filled in with earth material, but in 2010 plans were made to restore the work. As of 2014 this had not been carried out and the object was still largely hidden from view. Between the inundation lock (east) and the lock gate / inundation lock / check lock (west) an electric pumping station was built in 1919, which directly to the west of the inundation lock had a discharge lock in the Vecht and over which a bridge also came to be built. In total there were thus three discharge outlets in the Vecht.

Description

Small brick LOCK GATE / INUNDATION LOCK / CHECK LOCK, built shortly after 1884, with both heads partly executed with natural stone coping plates. The lock connected the Klopvaart to the Vecht and lies in the axis of the waterway, alongside the easterly inundation lock by which the waterway could be closed. The visible remains of the small lock are provided in the northern head with some stop plank grooves or stop plank seatings. The small lock must have been - including the bridge built over the southern end - approximately 40 m long and about 4 m wide.

Valuation

The LOCK GATE / INUNDATION LOCK / CHECK LOCK of the Klopvaart complex and located on the Vecht to the south of the Fort aan de Klop is of general importance on account of:

* Cultural-historical values as a component of the New Hollandic Water Line as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially implemented from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and Major-engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently by others over approximately 125 years strengthened and improved.

* Architectural-historical values in particular as an expression of military-strategic building practice, which was based on and arose as a consequence of: a. the system of inundation and access defence (19th century), b. the race with increasingly strengthened offensive means (19th century).

This concerns an expression of the historical water engineering related to military-strategic building practice from shortly after 1884, namely a lock for civil and military purposes.

* Ensemble value and situational values as a component of the New Hollandic Water Line. Also on account of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex.