After the floods of 1993 and 1995, the Dutch government decided that the river-bed of the Meuse had to change in the nearby future. In order to reduce the chance of flooding from 1:50 per year to 1:250 per year the river must be widened.

For the widening of the river Meuse a feasibility study was carried out by Svašek Hydraulics. Starting point was that the construction costs were to be covered by the income arrived from construction gravel and sand recuperated from the excavation.

In this study it was found that this target was met in the best way by utilising large-scale earthmoving equipment. The proposed prime movers are trucks with a payload of 100 tonnes and hydraulic excavators with bucket capacities up to 10 m³.