The Dutch government, represented by ‘Rijkswaterstaat’, wanted to understand the structural stability and availability of the lock and dam complexes Driel, Amerongen and Hagestein in the River Lower Rhine and Lek. The client wanted to carry out a risk assessment of these complexes because they have been altered due to changes in circumstances, for example changed construction standards, increased shipping traffic and ageing of the complexes. ARCADIS carried out the risk assessment for the complexes by analyzing and inspecting the objects. The resulting studies form part of a maintenance and improvement plan, including cost analysis, in a so called Probabilistic Conservation Plan.

Part of the risk assessment is to evaluate the role of the locks in their 24/7 availability to transport ships from the Rotterdam harbor to Germany (based on the convention of Mannheim). Also the hydroelectric complexes in Hagestein and Amerongen will be verified and optimized in function.

With the analysis and inspection of twelve sluice complexes in Twente, the IJsselmeer area and the Zuidwillemsvaart, Rijkswaterstaat gets information about the state of maintenance and operation of the complexes. This makes it easier for the client to determine the precautions that should be made made should something happen to the availability and reliability for shipping, as well as the costs involved.

We investigated the design principles of the locks with the current standards and current design loads. The quality of the objects was inspected and reported. The uniqueness of this method is the combination of the latest functional demands, the integration with the original design and integration of inspections results. The result indicates what should happen to improve functions and what renovation should take place so that reliability, availability, maintainability and security of the locks correspond to the current requirements.