All clear for trout and eels: thanks to the construction of a fish pass in Doesburg, fish can once again reach their breeding areas in the German-Dutch border area. In a room beside the fish ladder, visitors can observe the fish and also admire artistic glass mosaics on the walls. The tiler working on the project opted for laying materials from PCI Augsburg GmbH. He found the system products just as convincing as the effective support available for planning and installation.

It allows ships a clear run to the German-Dutch border, but the five-meter-high weir at Doesburg, 15 kilometers east of Arnhem, is an insurmountable obstacle to fish. It was constructed to compensate for the elevation difference at the confluence of the Oude IJssel and IJssel rivers. However, it also stopped fish from migrating upriver to the cross-border catchment area of the IJssel to the south-east, which has an area of about 1,200 square kilometers. The river authority responsible, Waterschap Rijn en IJssel, was prepared to do everything in its power to ensure that fish and organisms living in the riverbed could also pass the weir. Their efforts were successful: design work started on the tallest fish pass in the Netherlands. The facility was inaugurated in September 2019.

Watching fish migrating

Visitors can obtain information on fish migration at the facility and can even watch the fish themselves. A large pane of glass in an underground room beside the weir gives a clear view of the fish pass. A special feature of this room is its artistic design. Using mosaic tiles, master tiler Edwin Harbers created impressive fish motifs with lengths of up to four meters on the interior and an outside wall.

Following the designs of the artist Paul Wieggers, he laid the glass mosaics with up to 80 different colors on Kerlite boards with a thickness of 3.5 centimeters in his workshop. Harbers then assembled and grouted the finished motifs on site. This was a time-consuming project. Each fish motif required about 200 hours of work.

It's the service that counts

With his tiling firm Artiles, Edwin Harbers has specialized in works of art of this type. Initially, he used construction materials from a different manufacturer. He switched to PCI because he was not satisfied with the other supplier's service and has never regretted his decision. "I've already completed several mosaics with PCI products and I am highly satisfied. PCI's technical specialist Henk Nieuwenhuis has provided me with continuous support right from the planning stage of each project; this also applies to the fish pass. He was on site regularly and I could always ask him for advice," Harbers enthusiastically reports.

PCI products on floors and walls

For the preparation of substrates, Harbers used PCI Gisogrund 404 special primer and PCI Nanocret FC smoothing compound. PCI Zemtec 1K was applied to the concrete floor in the cellar room and outdoor areas were waterproofed using PCI Seccoral 2K Rapid fast-setting waterproofing slurry. The mosaics were laid with PCI Nanolight White, with the addition of PCI Lastoflex.

A case for PCI Durapox Premium Multicolor

Following the installation of the boards, Harbers grouted the artistic mosaics with PCI Durapox Premium and sealed them with PCI Silcoferm S. He was delighted with the quality but the limited colors available for the joint grout did not offer him sufficient design creativity in view of the brightly colored mosaics. This was an ideal case for the new PCI Durapox Premium Multicolor with its extremely wide variety of colors. "I often carry out tiling work similar to that on the fish pass. That's why I'm pleased to see that PCI Durapox Premium Multicolor will soon become available in the Netherlands. The hundreds of joint colors available open up entirely new artistic possibilities and allow maximum design freedom," says Harbers.