Construction of Maasvlakte 2 will start by creating a small banana-shaped island about 3 km from the present coastline. This will mark the beginning of the future seawalls of Maasvlakte 2. Vessels called Trailing Suction Hopper Dredgers will gather the required sand at distances between 7 and 20 km off the coast. The banana-shaped island at the most westerly point of Maasvlakte 2 will gradually grow towards the existing Maasvlakte. The sand for the future port sites can be sprayed on in the shelter provided by the future seawalls.

Approximately 240 million m³ of sand is needed for the construction of phase 1 of Maasvlakte 2. About 30 million m³ of this volume will be obtained through internal extraction.

Internal extraction consists of deep-dredging the port basin and cutting across the Yangtzehaven. All the released sand will be reused.

A start cannot be made on building the hard seawalls in the north until the sand body of the new outer contour provides sufficient protection. The first step will be to dismantle part of the existing dam of concrete blocks. The 40-ton concrete cubes this operation frees up will be reused later in the new hard seawalls.

After the spraying of the first port sites, a start will be made on building the quay walls for the future container terminals. The deep wall method will be used to build the deep-sea quay walls. This involves casting and shaping the earth-retaining concrete wall in the soil. This construction method was used recently to build the quay of the Euromax terminal. The barge feeder quay walls are designed as steel combi-walls, i.e. a combination of tube piles and sheet piling.

After completing the outer contour and sand bodies for the port sites, the next step will be to create the infrastructure bundle. This strip of bundled line infrastructure will provide access to Maasvlakte 2. The bundle consists of a two-track railway line, a main road, a secondary road, a cycle path and space reserved for pipelines.

The infrastructure bundle will be constructed almost in its entirety but the closure in the outer contour will be kept open as long as possible. This way Maasvlakte 2 will remain reachable for equipment and materials. The infrastructure bundle can be extended after the closure is shut. The northern Maasvlakte is than reachable via the new outer contour. It will then be time to dig through the Yangtzehaven to make Maasvlakte 2 accessible to shipping and allow the first vessels to unload their cargoes on the quay.