Wintec’s Aquablokk consists of prebuilt blocks that can be implemented in 48 hours, thus making it both faster and easier to build a sluice. In the image above, Aquablokk was installed for the municipality in Slagelse, Denmark.
With climate change making ever-growing impacts, demand for solutions to protect low-lying, inhabited areas is rising. To address the issue, Wintec, a Danish supplier of solutions for events such as climate protection, developed AquaBlokk, a new sluice system that consists of building blocks ready to be lowered into the water upon arrival onsite. As a result, a new sluice can be ready in 48 hours.
“With more extreme weather followed by flooding, for example, we have to invent innovative solutions to protect the citizens living in low-lying areas,” Oliver Bach, CEO of Wintec, said. “If we neglect to solve these problems, then eventually people will have to abandon their homes.”
Typically, building a sluice takes a minimum of six weeks – with a contractor needing to prepare the underground, a carpenter to build the mould, a concrete company to cast the sluice, and then a technician to install the sluice, complete with the control panel, activators, and pumps among others.
“We have finished projects within 48 hours, because when we get to the site, we have the prebuilt block where sluice, pumps, motors – everything really – are already built in. With AquaBlokk, everything is ready to be lowered into the building pit,” Bach continued. “This is also much more cost efficient because the customer only needs two suppliers for the entire project; Wintec and a contractor for preparing the building site if necessary.”
After installation, the system is ready for operation. The control system can be connected to the internet and operators can use a computer, a tablet or a smartphone to control water flow and regulation of the sluice gate.
