Inundatiekanaal Tiel

English translation

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Description

Intake Lock / River Water Defence / Bridge.

NEW HOLLAND WATER LINE

Introduction

INTAKE LOCK / RIVER WATER DEFENCE / BRIDGE, located in the Ophemertsedijk (northern Waaldijk) south of Tiel and built in 1878/79. The lock with bridge formed part of a new military-hydraulic structure that made the Linge better suited as a source for conducting inundations in the river area between the Neder-Rijn and Waal. The defence system of the New Holland Water Line was primarily based on the controlled flooding of (large) land areas. Controlled inundation required an ingenious system of water works, such as locks, weirs and canals, with which the necessary water level could be set and maintained quickly and within narrow limits. Many different types of locks were employed, depending on the location where they functioned in the system. Sometimes already existing shipping, drainage or check locks were used, but many new ones were also built or existing ones (substantially) modified. The Intake Lock / River Water Defence / Bridge at Tiel belongs to the newly built works, specially constructed for this purpose. It concerns a controllable and closable passage built into the river dike to feed the Linge. The lock was actually built only for military purposes, but the work could in limited measure - when water levels inside and outside were equal - possibly also be used for small vessels. The Linge had already been partly navigable from the Gorinchem side and above Asperen, but a connection with the Waal had not existed for centuries. The (re)use of such an upstream section of a river, long since unused for shipping, as an inundation canal is rather rare. The lock was regulated and operated by means of lowering or raising sluice gates and stop planks with the aid of winches on the lock heads. After the function of the work was taken over by a concrete intake culvert built somewhat further towards the Waal side, the winches disappeared, while sluice gates and/or stop planks were absent at the time of observation. The (non-authentic) bridge over the work, which bears strong similarity to that over the lock at Kruisstraat, remained largely intact. Around 2012 important restoration works took place on the masonry. Some damaged natural stone elements were replaced; parts of the authentic elements, including water level marks, were preserved in the immediate vicinity. Steel profiles in the stop plank recesses. The lock was primarily intended for military purposes; the bridge also and especially for civil use.

Description

Located in the Ophemertsedijk (northern Waaldijk), INTAKE LOCK / RIVER WATER DEFENCE consisting of two parallel passages positioned between mortared lock heads, separated by an equally mortared intermediate pier. The length of the work is approximately 20 m and the width is approximately 12 m, of which approximately 2 m for the intermediate pier. On either side sloping outward, projecting wing walls are built up in heavy masonry. The inner side of both abutments is several metres lower than the outer side (Waal side); the difference in height is bridged by means of approximately 15 steps in natural stone. The work is executed in masonry, with wattle in the wings. Furthermore natural stone, partly concrete coping stones and natural stone in the recesses on the lower inner side. There are in total five rows of (stop plank) recesses, of which three on the Waal side of the work and two on the 'Linge side'. The three brick recesses in the high Waal side are reinforced with iron / steel profiles. The intermediate pier is pointed grenade-shaped on both sides. Water level gauges, both chiselled into stone and separately installed. Over the high part of the intake lock a non-authentic but almost certainly pre-war BRIDGE, executed as a concrete slab bridge with on either side double, round, iron railings on flat, iron, concrete-set balusters. The length of the bridge is approximately 10 m, the width approximately 5 m.

Valuation

The INTAKE LOCK / RIVER WATER DEFENCE / BRIDGE in the Ophemertsedijk (northern Waaldijk) south of Tiel is of general importance because of:

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

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

This concerns an expression of historical hydraulic engineering related to military-strategic and civil building craft, of which the constituent parts serve as closable water intake, and river bank connection respectively.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Holland Water Line and because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex and in particular with the Inundation Canal.

The work is well preserved because the main form and important parts of the detailing are still authentic or recognisable in restored form.

The work is representative because it - despite the absence of sluice gates at the time of observation - in largely intact condition can demonstrate the functioning of the system of water intake from the river.