Restoration of historic inland barge job for problem youths

GRONINGEN – Until the twentieth century, when railways and trucking firms emerged as the main freight handlers, inland barges were the main means for transportation of commodities and products. To accommodate inland shipping, the government, particularly in the nineteenth century, significantly enhanced waterway infrastructure allowing barge owners to move freight with increasingly larger vessels. Some of these barges have been preserved as heritage symbols, including the 1912 ‘koftjalk’ Tromp, which will be restored by a group of problem youths in need of a trade. The Tromp was built as a two-mast sail ship in an age in which barges largely had become motorized.