Seems ever-so-slightly concerning that the mechanisms for preventing the bridge from overflowing are based solely on dams and pumps working. I.e., as opposed to building the bridge to float as necessary. Seems like that would be more versatile and lower-maintenance. *shrug* Then again: 1) it’s the Dutch, and 2) it’s only a man-made moat/lake, so what’s the worst that could happen?
Another, more relevant rabbit hole I’m skirting at the moment is reading about how Holland deals with the potential of mosquito populations, which seems like it could be vast for a country like that.
I mean nearly the entire Netherlands is dependent on dams and pumps working. If this bridge were ever to overflow I would not be confident in the rest of the country staying above water for long. The bridge is like an infrastructure canary.
Which is a big part of why I said “it’s the Dutch.”
I don’t know anything about this being an ‘infrastructure canary,’ however. TBH, I’d tend to hope that they don’t assign nearly the specialised resources to this project as they do far more critical works. Because this is mostly just a fun little project, right…?
I mean, it’s certainly not officially an infrastructure canary but if I lived in a Dutch region dependent on dams and pumps working, I’d be quite concerned if this bridge were to flood.
It shouldn’t take too much effort to keep the bridge in working condition (I assume - it wouldn’t have been built if it was prohibitively expensive to maintain) so if it does get flooded there is something going very wrong.
