Open verdedigingswerk, Betonnen werken rond Fort Blauwkapel Utrecht

English translation

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Description

Cluster 34. Sluice gate / small sluice.

NEW HOLLAND WATER LINE

Introduction

SLUICE GATE / SMALL SLUICE east of Fort Blauwkapel as a civil and military water engineering component of the New Holland Water Line. The defence system of the New Holland Water Line was primarily based on the controlled flooding of (large) terrain areas. Controlled inundation required an ingenious system of water works, such as locks, weirs, drainage channels and canals, by means of which the water level could be set and maintained rapidly and within narrow limits. The drainage channels and canals were often already present on site and required at most some adjustment. At Fort Blauwkapel various water works were constructed which served to precisely regulate the desired levels of inundation fields and fort ditch. These included, among others, an inundation lock, a dam lock and a still existing sluice. The sluice is located east of the fort in the watercourse along the Voordorpsedijk, just outside the (original boundary of the) fort ditch and it already appears on the map of 1874. The fort ditch was cut through by a railway at the same time, as a result of which a section was severed. The sluice had both a civil and a military function, as it formed the boundary between the fort ditch and the Voorveldsche Polder. The sluice remained in (virtually) authentic condition until 2012; it was subsequently (2013) removed and restored / reconstructed and then reinstalled on the likewise restored, mortared wing walls. Typologically the sluice corresponds with a reconstructed example at Fort de Gagel. Completely authentic examples of this type of sluice are rare.

Description

SLUICE GATE / SMALL SLUICE east of Fort Blauwkapel for the regulation of water level and constructed at the transition from the fort ditch of Fort Blauwkapel to the watercourse along the Voordorpse Dijk. The mechanism, almost entirely executed in iron, of the sluice has wing walls or retaining walls executed in brick at both sides and reinforced with natural stone corner stones, and further possesses a wooden slide gate as a water barrier. The slide gate can be moved via a winch with chain mounted on a (profiled steel) beam, and a hand-operated wheel with spokes. The beam is provided on left and right with diagonally placed stability braces. Above the winch a wooden canopy.

Evaluation

The SLUICE GATE / SMALL SLUICE east of Fort Blauwkapel is of general importance on account of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Holland Water Line as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and first constructed from 1815 onwards by him, Jan Blanken and major-engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently reinforced and improved by others for approximately 125 years.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic engineering, which is based on and developed as a consequence of - the system of inundation and access defence (19th century) and - the race with increasingly powerful offensive weapons (19th century).

This concerns a component that originally presumably dates from around the middle of the 19th century, namely an expression related to military-strategic engineering of historical water engineering.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Holland Water Line, as well as on account of the functional and physical relationship with the other components of the complex and in particular also with Fort Blauwkapel.

* The component is particularly representative (characteristic) because it is a good example of the application of this type of barrier in a combined civil and military situation and typologically there is a degree of rarity.

* The component is, thanks to restoration / reconstruction in form (typologically) reasonably well preserved; the sluice can be clearly recognized in the field as a constructed water engineering element.