Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, de Zilveren Schaats e.o. Utrecht

English translation

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Description

Cluster 301. Sluice / Weir / (Explosives)Culvert/bridge.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATERLINE

Introduction

SLUICE / WEIR / (EXPLOSIVES)CULVERT / BRIDGE in the Minstroom (Meentstroom) at the Erasmuslaan / Albert van Dalsumlaan, below and along the Waterlinieweg, as a 20th-century hydraulic engineering addition to the existing and adapted defence and inundation system of the New Hollandic Waterline. The defence system of the New Hollandic Waterline was primarily based on the controlled flooding of (large) land areas. Controlled inundation required an ingenious system of waterworks, such as sluices, weirs, waterways and canals, with which the water level could be set and maintained quickly and within narrow limits. Many waterways and canals and works were already present in situ and these required at most some adaptation and in particular widening and/or deepening, or streamlining or modification of (barrier) function. Other waters and waterworks, however, had to be specially constructed. The sluice / weir / culvert in the Minstroom (Meentstroom) below Waterlinieweg is an addition that arose with the construction of this road along the east side of Utrecht at the end of the 1930s in the 20th century. The road connected the highway from The Hague to Utrecht, which had been largely completed shortly before, from the 'Lunetten Junction' with the roundabout 'De Berekuil', not yet completed at the beginning of the Second World War but already in use, west of Fort de Bilt. The relationship between this traffic infrastructure work and the waterworks constructed in connection with it was very strong because the dyke body on which the road came to lie would become part of the water barrier of the inundation zone to the east of it. The barrier could be closed to protect the city of Utrecht from flooding when the water level was raised. This relationship is still clearly recognisable. The work was built as a 'navigation culvert' but could be permanently closed by means of sand and explosive charges placed above water in the culvert and thus functioned as a so-called 'explosives culvert'. The culvert superstructure that was present until then was, however, demolished in 1982. The coherence with the road constructed a few years before the Second World War gives the object a certain rarity value. It has related counterparts in a more northerly example at the Offerhausweg and the more southerly sluice / weir / culvert bridge in the Kromme Rijn at the Waterlinieweg.

Description

SLUICE / WEIR / (EXPLOSIVES)CULVERT / BRIDGE in the Minstroom (Meentstroom) at the Erasmuslaan / Albert van Dalsumlaan, below and along the Waterlinieweg, consisting of two components. The largest is a largely reinforced concrete box-shaped CULVERT / BRIDGE below the Waterlinieweg of approximately 30 m length and approximately 5 m width. To the east of this bridge / culvert are remains of a reinforced concrete SLUICE / WEIR, now consisting mainly of a bridging structure and two concrete barrier walls / sluice walls, over which an earlier superstructure for use as an (EXPLOSIVES)CULVERT was demolished in 1982. The length is approximately 20 m and the width approximately 5 m. The construction of sluice / weir / (explosives)culvert / bridge is in less authentic condition.

Valuation

The SLUICE / WEIR / (EXPLOSIVES)CULVERT / BRIDGE in the Minstroom (Meentstroom) at the Erasmuslaan / Albert van Dalsumlaan, below and along the Waterlinieweg, is of general importance because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Hollandic Waterline as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially realised from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and Major-Engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others for more than 125 years.

* Architectural-historical values in particular as an expression of military-strategic building engineering, which is based on the system of inundation and access defence (19th and 20th centuries).

The component is an example of a historical hydraulic engineering expression related to military-strategic building engineering.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Hollandic Waterline. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex and in particular with the counterparts or related works on the Waterlinieweg in the Biltsche Vaart or Biltsche Grift at the Offerhausweg and in the Kromme Rijn.

* The component is reasonably representative because it is an example of a large (explosives)culvert / bridge with water barrier specially built in a new road system and in connection with the New Hollandic Waterline.

* The component is poorly preserved in authentic form because both the main form and the function are difficult to recognise as a result of demolition of the culvert superstructure, but it nevertheless represents rarity value because of the 'explosives sluice construction'.