DELTA PROJECT

also called Delta Works, Dutch Deltawerken, in the southwestern Netherlands, a giant flood-control project that closed off the Rhine, Maas, and Schelde estuaries with dikes linking the islands of Walcheren, Noord-Beveland, Schouwen, Goeree, and Voorne and created what amounts to several freshwater lakes that are free of tides. Devised by the Dutch engineer Johan van Veen, the plan acquired great urgency after a catastrophic North Sea flood on Feb. 1, 1953, killed 1,835 persons and devastated 800 square miles (2,070 square km) of land in the southwestern Netherlands. Work on the Delta Project began shortly thereafter and was completed in 1986. Four barrier and six secondary dams were built to close off the mouths and inner reaches of the broad, long, interconnected inlets that for centuries had exposed the region to the destructive power of the North Sea. When the dams were completed, fresh water from the Rhine and from other rivers gradually replaced the entrapped salt water. Total length of the dams is 18.5 miles (about 30 km). The last barrier dam to be completed was that stretching across the three channels of the Eastern Schelde, or Oosterschelde. This dam consists of several strings of gates and their massive supporting piers and totals about 1.75 miles (2.8 km) in length. It differs from its predecessors because it has adjustable gates that, in normal weather, allow tidal seawaters to ebb and flow in the Oosterschelde estuary, thus benefiting the fish and bird life and the local fisheries. During a severe storm, however, of the type that caused the 1953 flood, the gates can be dropped to keep out high tides and storm surges and prevent them from inundating the adjacent lowlands. New roadways and connecting bridges were built over several of the Delta Project's dams and dikes, thus ending the historic isolation of the area from the rest of The Netherlands.