Albert Canal
The Albert Canal , Flemish Albert Canal , French Canal Albert , connects the two Belgian cities of Liège and Antwerp as an artificial waterway . The construction of this canal was intended to give the residents of the Maas access to the North Sea without having to drive through the Netherlands .
The length of the canal is 129.5 kilometers.
On its way, six locks overcome a height difference of around 56 meters. At the Belgian border town of Kanne, south of the Dutch city of Maastricht , the Albert Canal breaks through a mountain range made of limestone , which there is called marl . The subterranean fort Eben-Emael lies at this deep incision . There the canal runs more or less parallel to the Dutch border west of Maastricht.
The Albert Canal is also very important for the drinking water supply in the Antwerp region, as this depends on the Meuse water that is supplied via the canal.
history
The Albert Canal was laid out between 1930 and 1939. It was named after the Belgian King Albert I , who laid the foundation stone for the canal construction on May 31, 1930. It was officially opened on July 30, 1939. Before that, a boat trip from Antwerp to Liège took seven days, since then it has been less than a day. On May 10 and 11, 1940, the first two days of the Western campaign , a Wehrmacht commando captured Fort Eben-Emael after an airborne operation . On May 10, Dutch soldiers blew up almost all the bridges over the Albert Canal; two bridges (in Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt ) were captured unscathed by the Wehrmacht. On May 14, 1940, the Netherlands capitulated and the Wehrmacht occupied the country . After the Second World War, there were bridges in the canal that Wehrmacht soldiers had blown up when they retreated in 1944. In 1946 the canal was reopened.
The canal was originally designed for ships with a load of 2,000 tons and an annual transport volume of 15 million tons. In 1969 40 million tons were transported. The canal was widened and bridges and locks were adapted to the conditions at the time so that larger ships could navigate it.
Since its expansion in 1997, ships of ship class VI have been approved, also for push convoys with four barges with a total payload of 9,000 tons. The water depth is 3.4 meters and the bridge clearance is 6.7 meters. The section of the canal between Antwerp and the Wijnegem lock could not be widened because of the fact that there were industrial companies on the bank; therefore, traffic there is only possible with two barges. Considerations were given to building an almost 30 km long pushboat canal between Oelegem and Zandvliet; the plan was not implemented after objections from environmental organizations.
Further expansion
To make the canal more attractive for container shipping, too, the three different operators, the Antwerp Municipal Port Authority (SHA), the Belgian inland waterway administration NV de Scheepvaart and the port administration of Liège Port de Autonome de Liège are aiming for further expansion. For this purpose, all 62 bridge structures are to be brought to a clear passage height of 9.1 meters by 2020 so that the inland vessels can then pass with four instead of three stacked container layers. It is also being investigated whether the lock complex in Wijnegem can be extended for shipping to Antwerp.
Industry
Various industrial companies settled between the canal and the streets:
- Herentals Industries
- Industrie Oevel-Geel
- Ravenshout in Beringen, the second largest industrial area in Limburg
- Genk-Süd, harbor
Locks
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In order to overcome the height difference of 56 m, six lock systems with three locks each were built. Each system has two locks of 136 m × 16 m and one lock of 200 m × 24 m. The height difference at the locks is:
- Wijnegem 5.7 m
- Oil 10.0 m
- Kwaadmechelen 10.0 m
- Hasselt 10.1 m
- Diepenbeek 10.1 m
- Genk 10.1 m
Traffic volume
In 2005 around 22.5 million tons of goods were carried by 34,117 ships.
Connection with other channels
- Bocholt-Herentals canal near Herentals
- Dessel – Turnhout – Schoten Canal near Schoten
- Dessel – Kwaadmechelen Canal near Kwaadmechelen
- Briegden – Neerharen Canal near Briegden
- Netekanaal near Viersel
- Canal van Ternaaien (Albert Canal – Maas). Via the locks at Petit Lanaye (French) or Klein-Ternaaien (Dutch) you can reach the connecting canal Kanal van Ternaaien and after 1.9 km the Meuse near Maastricht. There are two locks of 55.0 m × 7.5 m and one lock of 136 m × 16 m, with a height difference of 13.94 m. A fourth lock measuring 200 m × 25 m was put into operation in 2015 after a construction period of 4 years.
Varia
One curve of the Circuit Zolder is named after the channel: curve no. 3 (Kanaalbocht).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Breuer: The Maas as a shipping route. ; Aachen geographical works, Volume 1; Steiner Publishing House; Aachen, Wiesbaden 1969, p. 142
- ↑ Eckhard-Herbert Arndt: Albert Canal will be expanded until 2020 . In: Daily port report of April 2, 2014, p. 14, ISSN 2190-8753
Web links
- Overview map: Waterways in Belgium (PDF, 231 kB)
Coordinates: 51 ° 4 ′ 2.6 " N , 5 ° 11 ′ 26.5" E