Odfjell nr 3 - 2005.indd

Odfjell LocationsRotterdam: Mainport EuropeBy Theo KruithofIn his story on Dubai (in the previous edition of OQ), Alireza Kaveh wastalking about “new wonders of the world”, some referring to artificiallyreclaimed land. This automatically leads us to the pioneers and world-wideexperts in dredging and reclaiming land: the Dutch people. To give an ideaof what the Dutch have to cope with, roughly 50% of the Netherlands isbelow sea-level. The lowest point in the Netherlands is a Rotterdamsuburb; 6.76 meters below sea-level. If it weren’t for the dikes, dams,sea-defense walls, reclaimed land and other huge infrastructuralinvestments, the Netherlands would only be half of its current size. Let’scall it “the old wonders of the world”. The Rotterdam port area is noexception, which brings us to the topic of this article.It all started in 1250, when some fishermenbuilt a dam in the river Rotte. In1328 the Oude Haven was completed.At the end of the 16th century theport expanded and the city had 20,000inhabitants. Only in 1872, with theconstruction of the Nieuwe Waterweg,the navigable connection between thecity centre and the North Sea, masstransportation to and from the Germanhinterland really started off. Both theport and the city have grown rapidlyever since.Maas and the Erasmus BridgeA heritage from the past. The old – no longer in use – railway bridge, connectingRotterdam-South with the NoordereilandWith nearly 600,000 inhabitants today,Rotterdam is the second largest cityof the Netherlands. The Rotterdamregion has around 1.2 million inhabitants.Rotterdam is a very multi-culturalcity with 135 different nationalities.On one hand this vast variety causes– let’s put it mildly – huge social andcultural challenges for the municipality,on the other hand it brings the steamingand swinging Summer Carnival, the(fire-)cracking Chinese New Year’scelebrations and many, many moremulti-cultural festivities. Other mainevents attracting millions of spectatorsare the Rotterdam Marathon, the DanceParade, the “Havendagen” (port festivities),“Monaco at the Maas” (a demoof Formula-1 cars racing through downtownRotterdam) and the “Red Bull AirRace”. Not to forget the various uniquemuseums and at least 40,000 spectatorsevery other week in the Feyenoordfootball stadium plus the large numberof pop-concerts in same stadium duringthe summertime. In short, Rotterdamsparkles!Architectural wise, Rotterdam is changingrapidly. The city center was destroyedcompletely during World War II andwas rebuilt in the early 1950’s. This hasresulted in a lot of square, unattrac-8 ODFJELL Quarterly October 2005