The construction of four new islands of the Marker Wadden archipelago was officially inaugurated last week by Dutch Transport Minister, Melanie Schultz van Haegen.
The islands are being constructed by Boskalis on behalf of nature conservation organization Natuurmonumenten and national department of public works Rijkswaterstaat, and are expected to be ready by 2018, the Dutch Water Sector said.
The ceremony to mark the official start of the expansion took place on the first island that was completed in September last year.
The construction of the four new islands in the shallow IJssel lake, one of the largest fresh water lakes in Europe, is financed by public and private organisations. Together they raised 38 million euro for this new phase of the development of the archipelago.
By 2020 the whole archipelago is expected to be ready, covering 1000 ha of land, marshes and mud plains.
Last year Boskalis completed the construction of the first 250ha island. The work was limited to the construction of a rock dam to protect the island from storms and some silt dams and beaches.
These dams will trap the silt sediment of the lake that is essentially too soft for building an island.
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