Plofsluis

Plofsluis
The Plofsluis
Waterway	Amsterdam–Rhine Canal
Country	Netherlands
Province	Utrecht
Maintained by	Rijkswaterstaat
Length	70 meter
Width	40 meter
Heritage status	Rijksmonument

The Plofsluis (lit. 'Explosion lock') or Keersluis bij Jutphaas (Control lock near Jutphaas) is a control lock in the Netherlands. It lies in the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal, between Nieuwegein and Houten, southeast of Fort Jutphaas. As part of the New Dutch Waterline, it was constructed to quickly dam the canal, so water from the flooded surroundings would not flow away through the canal. To achieve this, 40 million kilos of rocks and rubble was held in five spaces meters above the water, which would collapse with explosives. The plofsluis has never been used.

History

Building of the lock started in 1937, three years after work started on the Amsterdam-Rhine canal. Two pumping stations were also planned on both sides of the lock, so they could still influence the flow of water, but this was never finished due to the start of the Second World War in 1940. The lock was finished in 1942 by the German occupiers.

The lock became too small for the increasingly large inland shipping vessels. Demolition of the lock was too expensive, so instead the canal was widened in 1981 so ships could go around. The southern battery along the Overeindseweg was demolished for this. The spaces above the lock, which previously held the rocks and rubble, is temporarily used as storage of polluted soil. Since 2015, there is a cyclist bridge along the lock.