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Dutch Government Considers Creation of Huge Offshore Island
27 Jan 2008
The Dutch government is considering a radical plan to build a £7bn island in the shape of a tulip in the North Sea. The idea behind the concept is to relieve pressure on its overcrowded cities and protect the coastline from rising sea levels.
Dutch dredging and marine contractors have much experience of land reclamation projects on which they could draw if ‘Tulip Island’ goes ahead
Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, has reportedly asked a government advisory body, the Innovation Platform, to study the feasibility of reclaiming land about twice the size of the Isle of Wight in the UK. The findings were due to be presented on 17 January.
The so called ‘Tulip Island’ is the brainchild of Joop Atsma, a member of Mr Balkenende’s centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal party. Mr Atsma is proposing to build an island of between 120,000 and 250,000 acres off the coast of the Randstad, the country’s most densely inhabited region around Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague and Utrecht.
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