How do we keep our feet dry? That’s a question that has been on the minds of Wester-Amstel’s residents for three and a half centuries. For most city dwellers, the battle against water is an abstract one. But at Wester-Amstel—and for many other residents along the Amsteldijk—this battle takes place beneath our very feet. The most recent skirmish happened along the orchard lane.
Anyone familiar with the history of Amstelland knows that it is a peat area, once traversed by a small drainage stream: the Amstel. The peatland is subsiding, sinking by about a metre per century. The Amstel now rises—powerfully confined between sturdy river dykes—above the surrounding landscape.
This settling doesn’t happen evenly everywhere. Closer to the river, where there are more clay deposits, it occurs more slowly than in areas further from the river. As a result, there is now a height difference of one and a half metres at Wester-Amstel, between the highest point at the front and the lowest point in the woodland park at the back. We have four different water levels—five, if you count the Amstel itself. You’ll see it, once you start noticing it.
For three and a half centuries, the rule of thumb has been: each generation raises the paths by 30 centimetres. This has been done in fits and starts. For example, when the nearby Café ’t Koetje was demolished in 1965, much of the rubble ended up crushed and scattered over the paths. And in 1984, using ten-tonne lorries—heavy-duty trucks—a special dam was built for them, and all the paths were covered with a thick layer of sand in one go. Over the past twenty years, we’ve taken a more gradual approach. We now raise one path each year. Sand is brought in by tractors that just fit through the gate. The rest is done by the hands of our volunteers.
With one exception—until now. The orchard lane. For the past 350 years, it had never been raised. Built in 1662 on a sand bed over one and a half metres high, and resting on clay rather than peat, it always stayed dry. Until recent years. On the Amstel side, small dykes had formed from dredged silt taken from the ditch. The path now lies lower than the ditch itself and has become increasingly soggy, causing us to fear a breach.
This winter, we caught up with the help of the Zeldenrijk company. It looks now as if it has always been this way. And once again, you can stroll through the orchard lane with dry feet. Until, that is, you come upon another muddy patch in a different part of the park. And so, the work goes on...
By: Søren Ludvig Movig