Houtribdijk Netherlands Satellite Photo by Sentinel-2 30 June 2018

The Houtribdijk is a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

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 ...

, built between 1963 and 1976 as part of the

Zuiderzee Works The Zuiderzee Works () is a system of dams and Levee, dikes, land reclamation and water drainage work, which was the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The project involved the dammin ...

, which connects the cities of

Lelystad Lelystad () is a Dutch Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and the capital city of the province of Flevoland in the central Netherlands. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who en ...

and

Enkhuizen Enkhuizen () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. History Enkhuizen, like Hoorn and Amsterdam, was one of the harbour-towns of the VOC, from where overseas trade ...

. On the west side of the dike is the

Markermeer The Markermeer () is a lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland, and its smaller and larger neighbors, the IJmeer and IJsselmeer. A shallow lake at 3 to 5 m in depth, matching the reclaimed land to its west, nor ...

and on the east is the

IJsselmeer The IJsselmeer (; , ), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed-off freshwater lake in the central Netherlands bordering the Provinces of the Netherlands, provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of with a ...

. The 26-kilometer-long dike was intended for the

Markerwaard 200px, The Markerwaard would be on what is now the Markermeer The Markerwaard is the name of a proposed, but never built, polder adjoining the IJsselmeer in the central Netherlands. Its construction would have resulted in the near-total reclama ...

, but the construction of this

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

was abandoned in 2003 due to environmental concerns. The Houtribdijk was widened and reinforced between 2017 and 2020. Although called a ''dike'' (withholding water from land area), the Houtribdijk is actually a ''

'' (separating water bodies). Parts of the dike are known as the ''Markerwaarddijk'' and the ''Lelydijk''. It is also called the "Enkhuizen–Lelystad dike" (''dijk Enkhuizen-Lelystad'') in traffic announcements, as if it had no official name. The dike also used to be called ''Enkhuizerzanddijk''. The road that runs on the dike is the N302 and is used by 8,500 vehicles per day with a speed limit of 100 km/h. The road also features a biking path alongside the N302 on the northeastern side. Marine traffic can cross the dike at either the locks or the

naviduct A naviduct is a special class of navigable aqueduct, in which the waterway also includes a Lock (water transport), lock. One example of a naviduct has been built at Enkhuizen on the Houtribdijk in the Netherlands on the instructions of the Rijks ...

at Enkhuizen. Alternatively, there is a lock system at Lelystad. About halfway along the dike there is , an emergency harbor. Trintelhaven is also the site of a restaurant and an AM broadcasting station, which used to operate on 1395 kHz with 20 kW. It uses as antenna a 54-meters-tall free-standing grounded-lattice steel mast, which was built in 1999. The mast carries a wire antenna, which runs up the tower and is fixed to a horizontal cross on the top of the tower. IJsselmeer satellite

References

External links

* Roads in the Netherlands Dams in the Netherlands Causeways in Europe Buildings and structures in Enkhuizen Buildings and structures in Lelystad Transport in Flevoland Transport in North Holland Zuiderzee Works {{Netherlands-road-stub