The Veluwemeer Aqueduct: Netherland's Unique Water Bridge | Hacker News Reader

The Veluwemeer Aqueduct: Netherland's Unique Water Bridge

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29 pointsbookofjoe19 comments

Not sure why exactly this aquaduct is article-worthy or even on HN. In The Netherlands we have plenty of aqueducts, the first modern one is the Ringvaart Haarlemmermeer one [1], built in 1961.

[1]": https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaduct_Ringvaart_Haarlemmerm...

I believe the interesting bit is its short length. Usually an aqueduct is part of a river or canal, but in this case it is connecting a lake on either side.

Edit, then there’s also the new Aquaduct Vechtzicht, recently build and at 65m it is the widest aquaduct of Europe.

https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaduct_Vechtzicht

Are aqueducts common where you are from?

As someone from the Netherlands, I honestly don't understand the article. It speaks of a 'unique' project and a 'novel' approach, but the only thing that's supposed to make it so seems to be:

> Unlike other solutions for allowing vehicular traffic and waterborne traffic to pass over or under one another, engineers decided on a different approach: a water bridge.

While aqueducts are far less common than normal bridges in the Netherlands, they're a normal concept to me. Are they that uncommon? Does your country have them?

I haven't heard of an aqueduct here in the United States capable of carrying boat traffic. I think of aqueducts here as only part of drinking water or irrigation water systems, like the California Aqueduct which brings water from Northern California to Southern California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Aqueduct

I don't think of them as parts of navigable waterways!

Edit: Apparently there are some, mainly on the Erie and Chesapeake and Ohio canals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Navigable_aqueducts_i...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Canal_aqueducts_...

The Erie Canal is still operating along with some of its aqueducts, while the Chesapeake and Ohio canal has been shut down and it seems most of its aqueducts are no longer maintained or operational.

I don't think I ever knew about that. Maybe it's better-known to people who live in the vicinity of those canals?

Artificial navigable waterways are a lot more pervasive in the Netherlands than here. :-) Maybe partly because the U.S. is a lot hillier.

The Erie Canal opened in 1825, and the first railroad in the US opened in 1831. It was a bypass for a slow section of the Erie Canal. So narrow canals in the US became obsolete before many were built.

The California Aqueduct has some water bridges over the aqueduct.[1] That's to keep agricultural runoff out of the water supply.

[1] https://earth.google.com/web/@37.1548186,-121.06138975,71.78...

You do realise that an aqueduct carrying only water is carrying the same load as one carrying lots of ships? (maybe you do) The weight of the ships displaces exactly the amount of water with that weight. There is of course some water movement to deal with, and there are safety margins required, in case of accidents, etc. - perhaps that was your point, but I think it's worth pointing out, if people aren't familiar with aquaducts.

I read that once but had forgotten it until you reminded me, so thanks!

I was thinking that aqueducts for drinking and irrigation water usually wouldn't be navigable because their waterway is too small (too shallow or too narrow), or, for drinking water, is sometimes covered or enclosed.

Edit: For example, EBMUD has a major aqueduct coming from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardee_Dam

(https://www.ebmud.com/files/cache/f49ff54bdbea934d88a2bfee40... -- none of it navigable or even close!)

while SF Water has a major aqueduct coming from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Shaughnessy_Dam_(Californi...

Both of these use enclosed pipelines and spend a significant portion of their journeys underground!

I think L.A. has something similar. Edit 2: Yep, the enormous and also totally non-navigable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Aqueduct

Plenty here in the UK. Here’s the best known: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct - the highest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Another in the UK is the Iron Trunk, carrying the Grand Union canal over the river Great Ouse:

https://www.nationaltransporttrust.org.uk/heritage-sites/her...

This one is just outside Milton Keynes, which might be a bit more accessible to foreign HN readers visiting the UK than the Welsh Marches.

"During the planning phase for the project, drawbridges, ferries, and tunnels were considered as likely solutions to allowing the road to fully cross the lake. However, these were decided against, and the novel approach of building a short aqueduct over the road was selected."

If you look on Google maps, the same road has a bridge over the same body of water only about a quarter of a mile from this acqeduct. Given that, I don't understand the quote above, nor do I understand why there was a need for this aqueduct. Maybe they built the aqueduct first, and later decided there was a need for larger boats to pass so then they built the bridge? Although the article states the aqueduct is only from 2002, which seems not that old for this kind of infrastructure.

And now the design of the road with the bridge and the roundabout connecting the road with N707 has a costly consequence. They want to introduce a tunnel to pass the N707, but the altitude of the road due to the bridge leaves little room to make that possible.

Germany has them too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg_Water_Bridge

Germany has two big ones: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserstraßenkreuz_Minden and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserstraßenkreuz_Magdeburg

I'd expect the Netherlands to have quite a few of those, maybe a bit smaller. Is that really so special?

I don't understand what's special about it. Another strange thing, the city nearby wasn't even mentioned and I had no clue where it even was, Nijkerk or Harderwijk. Apparently it's near Harderwijk and I even passed it by bicycle a few years ago. The view is nice from both sides, but I never considered the tunnel to be interesting. I guess I am the wrong kind of nerd, not one for tunnels :)

In normal conversation we just call it a tunnel, just like this traintunnel near Kampen: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/426003807

We have a bunch. I live within 5 km of four of them. They make a lot of sense in a flat country.

I am unimpressed. Compare to this https://englishrussia.com/2007/12/07/from-river-to-river/

A "ferry" for ships on rails, carrying ships from river to river over a dam. With giant high voltage catenary on the side!

Interesting article, however not as unique as the author presumes. We have an even larger naviduct [1], that also acts as a lock between two large lakes in the Netherlands.

[1] - https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naviduct_Krabbersgat

Fun fact: If you've ever been to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida you've probably driven under one of their three water bridges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql0ZZtNAAUo

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gouwe-aqueduct

Must be a nice view, both ways.

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