Old Weser
| Alte Weser lighthouse | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Data | |
| Function: | Orientation and cross-branding lights for the New Weser fairway; Beacon for Alte Weser fairway; Antenna carrier radar chain Outer Weser; |
| Optics: | Double belt optics with 400 mm focal length ; 2000 W xenon lamp, light intensity 424,000 cd ; |
| Planning u. Construction supervision: | Waterways and Shipping Authority Bremerhaven wsa-bremerhaven.de |
| built: | 1961 to 1964 |
| Start of operation: | September 1, 1964 |
| Height: | NN –22.00 m to NN + 39.35 m (to radar antenna) |
| Founding: | at NN –22.00 m, well body diameter. 15 m, height 11 m, above cylindrical shaft diam. 6.5 m |
| Fire height: | 33 m |
| geogr. Position: | Latitude: 53 ° 51 '48 "N, Longitude: 8 ° 7' 39" E (WGS 84);
34 42 674, 59 70 610 (GK); Weser km 114.87; |
| Identifier: | Fwrgn. |
| Visibility: | White 23.0 nm / red 19.2 nm / green 18.0 nm |
| Audio signal: | Horn Mon (AL) 1 min |
| International ordinal number: | B 1188 |
| Further equipment: | Radar system, directional radio antennas, visibility measuring device,
Local control system, water level, remote water level data transmission, wind measuring system, emergency power system, 2 cranes, mobile scaffolding, accommodation for several people |
| Others: | Replacement of the Roter Sand lighthouse |
The Alte Weser lighthouse is located in the German Bight in front of the mouth of the Weser . It replaced the Roter Sand lighthouse built between 1883 and 1885 .
General
The Alte Weser lighthouse was built between 1961 and 1964. It consists of reinforced concrete with a steel jacket and steel structures. It is built 'offshore' in sand at around 11 m above sea level , the height of the structure is around 40 m above sea level . The range is between 18 and 23 nm , depending on the lighting sector .
The Alte Weser lighthouse and the Roter Sand lighthouse can be seen with the naked eye from inhabited land from the North Sea island of Wangerooge and the coast of the Wangerland . In good weather, you can see both towers from the viewing dune on the island of Spiekeroog without aids. In the dark, the Alte Weser beacon is clearly visible as white light in the direction of the mouth of the Weser as well as from the East Frisian island of Norderney on the horizon. The Alte Weser lighthouse took over the functions of the Roter Sand lighthouse on September 1, 1964. It is the antenna carrier for a station on the land radar chain Outer Weser . Alte Weser has an orientation and a cross mark light for the New Weser fairway and a beacon for the Alte Weser fairway. The international serial number of the Alte Weser lighthouse is B 1188. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Alte Weser lighthouse was the motif of a 20- pfennig postage stamp of the Deutsche Bundespost in the “ Industry and Technology ” series.
construction
The well-known Roter Sand lighthouse in the Outer Weser was severely damaged at the end of the 1950s by sand grinding , corrosion and leaching of the concrete. As a replacement, the Alte Weser lighthouse was therefore built to the east-northeast of this location between 1961 and 1964. At the same time, the fairway conditions in the Outer Weser should be improved and the tower set up as a link in a radar chain.
The new shape of the tower with its tapering tower shaft and the projecting upper floors was based on a design by the Bremerhaven engineer Andreas Carstens. This conical tower shape should offer less resistance to waves and ice drift . The Bremerhaven Waterways and Shipping Authority, as the competent authority of the Federal Ministry of Transport, commissioned a consortium of the companies Philipp Holzmann , Strabag Bau AG and Hermann Möller to carry out the steel work by Howaldtswerke in Kiel .
The steel construction work for the tower shaft and the upper floors together with the equipment were carried out in a dry dock of the Kiel Howaldtswerke, the tower shaft on a jack-up platform , which was provided with a cutout, towed through the Kiel Canal to the North Sea and to the intended location on the Outer Weser there washed in or lowered to the intended depth. After placing an underwater concrete layer, the shaft was pumped out and the reinforced concrete installed.
Particular difficulties and delays in the construction process prepared the supply of the necessary materials by relatively weather and sea conditions -sensitive coasters . Above all, all building materials needed for the underwater concrete had to be brought in without interruption in order to avoid impermissible joints. This required a longer period of good weather. There were further delays due to two construction accidents, the first of which was accompanied by severe water ingress into the tower, the cause of which remained unclear and in which two people died. The tower shaft, which had already been lowered into the ground, had to be abandoned. Its upper part was detached and taken from the jack-up platform to Kiel for later reuse. It could then be taken and put on during the second installation attempt the following year. The stump of the tower shaft remained underground and the Alte Weser was thus not affected by the hurricane flood of 1962 . The accident forced a new start of construction in Kiel with a delay of one year. The second accident was due to a failure of the adhesion on the front jack-up platform legs. A second one was required here for the recovery and removal of the damaged jack-up platform. In the third year of construction - after the jack-up platform had been repaired - construction work on the tower shaft was resumed and completed.
Now the jack-up platform could also pick up the upper floors that were still stored in Kiel and bring them to the tower, where they could be pushed onto the tower shaft without complications under favorable weather conditions. Now the other important work could also be carried out, such as B. the installation of the optics with the associated panels and the installation of the emergency power generator .
The power supply of the lighthouse represented a special section of the overall measure. Here a 6 kV cable was laid from the Robbenplate lighthouse, in the last section it was flushed in with the aid of a “flushing boot” and pulled into the tower through a protective cable pipe . A later introduction into the still-to-be-built Tegeler Plate lighthouse was planned. The foundation of the building was secured against washout by pouring stones on bush mats. In 1964 the fire started operating. The four-man crew was withdrawn in 1972 when the remote control was connected.
Tegeler Plate lighthouse
As mentioned above, the construction of another lighthouse was necessary as a supplement to the improvement of the fairway conditions, which should be achieved with the overall measure. At the same time there was the possibility of moving in the lightship Bremen, which is further inward. The Tegeler Plate was planned as the location.
The tower shaft and upper floors of the Tegeler Plate lighthouse were to be made entirely of steel. The shaft height of around 46 m, but also the local shallow water conditions (especially mean low tidal water around 2.5 m above ground), made it possible to wash the shaft 18 m deep into the sand in one piece. This process should initially be limited to flushing in the shaft, the tower head should be attached later to compensate for any deviations. After the steel construction work had been carried out in Wilhelmshaven, the tower shaft and upper floors were brought to the intended location by a rescue ship equipped with powerful pumps and washed in. The power supply cable already laid towards the Alte Weser lighthouse was "looped" into the new tower. Operations began in 1966 - remotely controlled and unmanned from the start. Emergency shelters were only provided for maintenance personnel. The sole was also secured here by pouring stones.
With these measures, two important steps towards deepening the Outer Weser were taken.
literature
- New navigation systems on the Outer Weser. For the inauguration of the security radar systems and the Alte Weser and Tegelerplate lighthouses on September 6, 1965 in Bremerhaven . Waterways and Shipping Office, Bremerhaven 1965
- Hans-Joachim Luttermann: Flowers, beacons, fire towers . 2nd Edition. Convent, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-934613-54-3
- Reinhard Scheiblich: Lighthouses on Germany's coasts . 2nd Edition. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2003, ISBN 3-7688-0920-X
- Reinhard Scheiblich, Hans-Joachim Lutterman: Stars under the clouds. History and stories about German lighthouses . Convent, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-934613-51-9
- Reinhard Scheiblich, Hans Helge Staack: Lighthouse Lexicon . Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-8319-0038-8
- Uwe Schnall: Lighthouses on German coasts. A picture journey . 4th edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-89234-521-X
- Rolf Seedorf, Paul Fäthke: Saved! Red sand lighthouse . DSV, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-88412-116-2
- Siegfried Stölting (Ed.): Lighthouse Roter Sand. 1885-1985 . Worpsweder Verlag, Lilienthal 1985, ISBN 3-922516-44-0
- Siegfried Stölting: Roter Sand lighthouse . Wirtschaftsverlag NW Verlag für neue Wissenschaft, Bremerhaven 2005, ISBN 3-86509-334-5
- Friedrich-Karl Zemke: German lighthouses then and now . 3. Edition. Koehler, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0769-6
Web links
- Description of the lighthouse at the Weser-Jade-Nordsee water and shipping office
Coordinates: 53 ° 51 '48 " N , 8 ° 7' 39" E