Housing minister plans new village at Netherlands’ lowest point

The government is pressing ahead with plans to build a new village of 6,000 homes at the lowest point in the Netherlands, more than six metres below sea level.

The construction of Cortelande, in the Zuidplaspolder near Gouda, is one of five projects named by housing minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan in the latest stage of her national plan to build more than 400,000 new homes by 2040.

The €132 million project, originally announced by O’Sullivan’s predecessor Mona Keijzer, led to a legal row between the local council and the local water board, but the latter withdrew its appeal in July after talks to safeguard the water supplies.

Experts have warned that building the village, which lies 6.78m below NAP, the baseline used to determine elevation in the Netherlands, will be especially challenging.

“We’re pushing the boundaries,” researcher Floris Boogaard of hydraulic engineering research specialist Delatres told NOS. “The ground might rise here, but you’re building on soft ground, especially when it’s so deep. We’ve never built so deep before on such a large scale.”

The other four projects named by Boekholt-O’Sullivan are in Assen, Drenthe, where up to 6,000 homes will be built in three suburbs, another 3,500 houses in Best, Noord-Brabant, up to 6,000 homes in Roosendaal, a key rail hub on the Belgian border, and 5,000 homes in the Zeeland towns of Middleburg, Vlissingen and Veere.