Port of Rotterdam Landsat 8 Photo 8 May 2016

Europoort (, , also "Europort") is an area of the

Port of Rotterdam The Port of Rotterdam is the largest seaport in Europe, and the world's largest seaport outside of Asia, located in and near the city of Rotterdam, in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. From 1962 until 2004, it was the List of bus ...

and the adjoining industrial area in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Being situated at Southside of the mouth of the rivers

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

and

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

with the

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...

consisting of the Netherlands,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and partly

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, Europoort is one of the world's busiest ports and considered a major entry to Europe. The port handled 12 million containers in 2015. The Europoort area is very heavily industrialised with petrochemical refineries and storage tanks, bulk iron ore and coal handling as well as container and new motor vehicle terminals. Europoort is situated on the South bank of the

Nieuwe Waterweg The Nieuwe Waterweg ("New Waterway") is a ship canal in the Netherlands from Scheur, het Scheur (a branch of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta) west of the town of Maassluis to the North Sea at Hook of Holland: the #Maasmon, Maasmond, where the Nieu ...

, same as the Maasvlakte area. On the Northern bank of the Nieuwe Waterweg one could find

Hook of Holland Hook of Holland (, ) is a coastal village in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was in use before the word ''wikt:kaap#Dutch, kaap'' – "cape". The English translation using Hook is a false cognate of t ...

(in Dutch: Hoek van Holland).

Development of Europoort

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

has developed from a small town into a major harbour city. In earlier centuries, docks were built on the banks of the

Nieuwe Maas The Nieuwe Maas (; "New Meuse") is a distributary of the Rhine River, and a former distributary of the Meuse (river), Maas River, in the Netherlands, Dutch Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland. It runs from the confluence of th ...

river. In the 19th century, connections between Rotterdam and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

were poor, with a large

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

area with many small

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

s between them. Ships had to sail around

Voorne-Putten Voorne-Putten () is an island between the North Sea, the Brielse Meer and the rivers Oude Maas, Spui and Haringvliet in the province of South Holland. Voorne-Putten consists of the two former islands Voorne (the larger, western part) and Pu ...

to go out to sea. This could take several days or even weeks. To improve the situation, the ''

'' ("New Waterway"), a large canal, was designed to connect the

and

rivers to the sea. The ''Nieuwe Waterweg'', designed by Pieter Caland, was to be partly dug, then to further deepen the canal bed by the natural flow of the water. Ultimately however, the last part had to be dug also. Nevertheless, Rotterdam from now on had a direct connection between the sea and harbour areas with sufficient depth. The ''Nieuwe Waterweg'' has since been deepened several times. Over the years the port was further developed seaward by building new docks and harbour-basins. In the 1970s the port was extended into the sea at the south side of the mouth of the Nieuwe Waterweg by completion of the '' Maasvlakte'' (Meuse-plain), a large land reclamation area with even more refineries and storage tanks. This project was called ''Europoort'', literally the "Gate to Europe". The

Maasvlakte 2 Maasvlakte 2 is a major civil engineering project in the Netherlands, constructing a new port and supporting infrastructure on reclaimed land adjoining the Maasvlakte. Approximately 2000 hectares will be reclaimed, behind a 4 km dike; approxi ...

project is extending Europoort even further seaward, but the UK-Netherlands border is set equidistantly from the

IJmuiden n IJ (digraph) and that should remain the only places where they are used. > IJmuiden () is a port town in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality of Velsen which lies mainly to the south-ea ...

harbour coast line and remains unaffected by the expansion. In the past five years the industrialized skyline has been changed by the addition of large numbers of

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s taking advantage of the exposed coastal conditions.

Factors for Europoort's success

The most important factor contributing to the large amount of cargo shipping in and out of Europort is the presence of the Maas (Meuse) and

rivers. Through these rivers, Europoort is connected to the

Ruhr Area The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

as well as

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

. Furthermore, Europoort is connected to its rival, the port of

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

by the

Scheldt–Rhine Canal The Scheldt–Rhine Canal (Schelde-Rijnkanaal) in Belgium and the Netherlands connects Antwerp with the Volkerak, and thereby the Scheldt with the Rhine. Route The canal starts close to the Scheldt river, at the port of Antwerp, and generally ...

. Adding to its transit-function, Rotterdam is connected to Germany by the A15 highway and a railway-network. In 2007, an extra railway connection (the ''

Betuweroute The Betuweroute is a double track Freight rail transport, freight railway between Rotterdam and Germany. is the official name, after the Betuwe area through which the route passes. The line is popularly called Betuwelijn, after an older local ...

'') was completed to create an extra connection to the Ruhr area. The P&O passenger/car/lorry overnight

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

service to Hull, England, operates from Europoort using 2 ferries: the Pride of Rotterdam and the Pride of Hull.

References

External links

*Maps (select ''plattegrond''): **Europoort

**Maasvlakte

**

Rozenburg Rozenburg () is a town and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of 13,173 in 2004, and covers an area of 6.50 km2 (of which 1.99 km2 water). It was the se ...

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{{Coord, 51, 56, 36, N, 4, 08, 33, E, region:NL_type:landmark, display=title Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta Port of Rotterdam