Exhibition ‘Sand On The Move’ At The National Dredging Museum

Flyer for the exhibition ‘Sand on the move’ (Credit: National Dredging Museum).

As we’ve seen in my last post, sand is one of the commodities most in demand1. Here in the Netherlands, there is a whole industry built on the extraction and distribution of sand. One of the most used extraction methods is dredging, something we’re well acquainted with. One of the most used distribution methods is barge transport. And the National Dredging Museum has opened an exhibition on these complementary trades: ‘Sand on the Move’2.
Last Thursday was the opening of this new exhibition of the museum. For the occasion, there were two speakers invited. Kees van der Veeken, director Consortium Grensmaas showed us the current practice of sand mining. Tjeerd Roozendaal, head engineer – program director projects and maintenance of Rijkswaterstaat had the honour to open the exhibition. Afterwards, there was a dinner buffet available for the guests. An excellent opportunity to learn, hear opinions and build on your (dredging) network.

Panoramic view of the ‘Sand on the move’ exhibition.

Our modern infrastructure was only made possible by the application use of sand as foundation of roads and fill material in concrete and tarmac. At the exhibition, there are displays of four big projects about sand mining: ‘Betuweroute’3, ‘Kraaijnbergse Plassen’4, ‘IJsseloog’5 and ‘Grensmaas’6. Each highlighting a certain aspect of sand mining in the Netherlands.
Another part of the exhibition revolves around the distribution of sand. And this posed a chicken and egg problem: in order to build roads, you need roads to transport the sand. So, in the early days, before there were roads, sand was being delivered over water by barge. There was a short period, where numerous small enterprises, mostly family owned, filled the gap of transporting sand by barge, taking the place of delivery trucks. Also my family had a motor vessel for sand transportation, ‘Excelsior’. And my grandfather told me many times of his adventures on board and his relative happy times. As this was hard work for sure.

Motor sand barge ‘Excelsior’ (Credit: Co Winkelman).

Along with old photographs of those sand barges, there are also many models and a video exhibit. Each conveying respect to these men, women and sometimes children, that have been toiling to build the roads and railways that we are now taking for granted in our luxurious times.
Unfortunately, these businesses worked to their own demise. As roads and railways improved, there was less need to transport the sand by barge, but directly hauled to the location where it was needed by road. So, somewhere this typical business dried up. Nowadays, sand is still transported by barges, but they are usually owned by large companies, that own the whole product line from extraction, distribution to application.
There is also a small sand laboratory to experience yourself, how many different aspects of sand are involved in selecting the right sand for the right application. At a small scale and easy to understand steps, this represents how we are evaluating sand in our own laboratory. Next to this laboratory, there are many more kid friendly exhibits in the rest of the museum. I can highly recommend you to plan a visit to the national dredging museum these weekends or during the Christmas holiday.

Mini sand laboratory (Credit: National Dredging museum).

References

  1. The World in a Grain, Amazon
  2. Sand on the Move, National Dredging Museum
  3. Betuweroute, Wikipedia
  4. Kraaijenbergse Plassen, Wikipedia (NL)
  5. IJsseloog, Wikipedia
  6. Grensmaas, Wikipedia (NL)

See also

Book Review: The World In A Grain

Cover page The World In A Grain by Vince Beiser.

Last Saturday, a special Dutch season started: Sinterklaas1. He traditionally arrives in a steam ship in some camera pleasing port and starts his tour through the country. Eventually he commemorates his name day (December 6th) by leaving presents for all children on the eve before. Usually this is celebrated with children and/or parents giving each other presents in elaborate packaging and clumsy rhymes. So, this might be a good occasion to recommend a book for your wish list.

Somewhere I found a copy of ‘The World in a Grain’ by Vince Beiser2. Actually, it was the subtitle, ‘The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization’ that caught my attention. As you may have noticed, I am very interested in sand. And, it is good, to occasionally take a step back and contemplate how our product contributes to civilisation and the world as we know it.

Photo of American-Canadian journalist Vince Beiser (Credit: Wikipedia).

Vince Beiser3 is an American-Canadian journalist and the book is easy to read. The chapters are arranged to the subject where sand is coming from and its contribution to society. Beginning with the origin of sand, the erosion of rock, and the locations where it ends up and can be extracted. The most basic application of sand is construction sand to create infrastructure: reclaimed land, ballast material for roads and railways, general landscaping etc. Than, the applications become more refined: concrete, asphalt, fracking, foundries, glass making, eventually all the way to high end products as computer chips and smart phones. Each application requiring its own type of sand.

Soil sample exhibit at the Damen Dredging Experience.

Proceeding through the book, you will be surprised about how dependent we’ve become on such a small unit of our universe. And that is exactly where Beiser is alarming us about. Not only that at some point in the future, sand will become a scarce commodity, it already is. As with all scarce materials, they become precious and attract activity that is not always benefitting all stakeholders. This usually involves violence and crime. And Beiser has been exploring this dark side of the trade for his book.

His experience as criminal-justice journalist has helped him to uncover social injustice, where some greedy individuals were profiting from resources that ought to serve the wellbeing of all mankind. Beautiful beaches that have been scooped away. Rivers that changed their course and deprived communities from irrigation. Pastoral landscape, that was torn up and left behind devastated. He visited some sites and spoke to victims and activists. At some occasions, he was even threatened himself.

Progressing through the book, I even felt ashamed that I was taking part in an industry that allegedly rapes nature and deprives future generations of their rightful heritage. He reported severe cases from undeveloped countries, but even well-known names in our dredging industry have been mentioned. According to Beiser, there is no direct solution, as the demand is still on the rise, but I think there is: cooperation in governance. Share with others the experience on sand mining, the market possibilities and communicate with all stakeholders involved. Personally, I am involved in CEDA4, but there are many more platforms: IADC, EuDA, EMSAGG, PIANC etc. And as always: think about what you are doing and what does it leave future generations with.

OK, one last bonus link for those who don’t like reading a whole book. I think the producers of the Dutch children’s TV show ‘Buitendienst’5, last Friday, have been reading this book also.

Het grote zandmysterie (Credit: De Buitendienst).

References

  1. Sinterklaas, Wikipedia
  2. The World in a Grain, Amazon
  3. Vince Beiser, Wikipedia
  4. Dredging Management Commission, CEDA
  5. Het grote zandmysterie, NPO Zapp

See also

Graduation Gijs Ter Meulen: Drag Analysis And Model For Forces And Production

Gijs proudly presenting his MSc. certificate.

We have another bright new MSc. engineer in dredging technology1: Gijs ter Meulen. Tuesday, he presented and defended his thesis on the forces and production of a trailing suction head. For this thesis project he was working at our research and development department at Damen Dredging Equipment2.

Trailing suction hopper dredges have become the tool of the trade for modern dredging contractors. They are versatile, flexible and able to transport sand over great distances. They load their cargo in their holds, by sucking up the sediment from the sea bottom with a big trailing suction head. This head looks like an out of size vacuum cleaner head.

Typical drag head on a railing suction hopper dredge.

Usually, it is very difficult to comprehend what is going on in and around the drag head. There is some laboratory research done, but not all results are freely available. Other knowledge is solely based on the experience of well-seasoned dredge masters. I do have respect for the experience of dredge masters, but their stories are hardly usable for an academic model description. So, Gijs took on the challenge to piece together a model, that satisfies our curiosity and fits with the experiences.

Concise development of the drag head model by Gijs ter Meulen.

For this project, he identified several steps, which we briefly touch upon here:

  1. The processes and forces around the drag head3 were all investigated on their cause and effect.
  2. A model was set up, where each process and their interaction with the others were identified.
  3. One main process in the drag head is the jetting production. A powerful jet of water is injected into the soil and this erodes part of the sediment under the drag head4.
  4. Another main process is the cutting production5. What is not eroded away by the jets, is removed by the teeth at the back of the visor.
  5. As the contribution of the processes to the forces and the production is known, the total performance can be calculated.

Along the way, this gave us very useful insight in the capabilities of the drag head and the trailing system, all the way to the requirements for the propulsion. Now, we will be able to continue to improve our drag heads even further. Any other students who would like to participate in that project are welcome to contact us5.

Gijs takes a new step in his career path. He is going to work for a well esteemed customer of us, so we will see him around in the dredging industry. Thanks Gijs, bon voyage!

Gijs, good luck with your future career in dredging.

References

  1. MSc Offshore & Dredging Engineering, TU Delft
  2. Innovation, Damen Dredging Equipment
  3. Designing Dredging Equipment [OE4671], Vlasblom
  4. Sand erosion with a traversing circular jet, Robert Weegenaar
  5. The Cutting of Sand, Dredging Engineering
  6. Internships, Damen Dredging Equipment

See also