King Willem-Alexander and King Philippe to open new Terneuzen lock

(Posted on 12/09/24)

The Kings of the Netherlands and the Belgians will open the New Lock in Terneuzen on 11 October. Barry Madlener, the Netherlands Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management and Lydia Peeters, the Flemish Minister for Mobility and Public Works will also be present.

The joint opening underscores the transnational significance of the New Lock. The opening of the New Lock in Terneuzen will add a second, larger sea lock to our North Sea Port port area. It will provide better access and faster flow for shipping from the Western Scheldt to the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal and beyond. The New Lock will generate new economic activities in the Zeelandic-Flanders and Flanders regions and better exploit the economic potential of the Canal Zone in both. The capacity of the North Sea locks is increasing: more ships can now pass through the three locks at the same time, reducing waiting times for maritime and inland vessels.

King Willem-Alexander and King Philippe will perform the official opening ceremony together from the Z9, an electric ship. Afterwards, they will talk to representatives of companies that use the North Sea locks in Terneuzen on board the ship.

The kings will then move to the lock platform of the New Lock. There, the construction and operation of the New Lock will be explained to them.

At the New Lock’s control building, the kings will talk to representatives of local residents, volunteers from the Flanders Portal (the information centre about the port area) and staff from the consortium which has built the New Lock.

The New Lock was commissioned by the Flemish Scheldt Committee (VNSC), a partnership between the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Flemish Department of Mobility and Public Works. The construction of the New Lock began in 2017 within the existing lock complex at Terneuzen, in the North Sea Port port area. The Middle Lock, in use since 1910, gave way to the New Lock. In 2023, 56,000 ships passed through this lock complex. This number is expected to grow to 96,000 by 2040. Apart from vessels passing through the complex, the lock complex is an important access route for road traffic and the New Lock is part of the primary flood defence system.