Elbe-Weser shipping route
| (Inland) shipping route Elbe-Weser | |
|---|---|
 Elbe-Weser shipping route |
|
| Water code | DE : 5992, 49926, 4992 |
| location | Lower Saxony , Bremen |
| length | 54.7 km |
| class | 0 (vehicles up to 33 m long, 5 m wide, 1.5 m deep, 2.7 m high) |
| Beginning | Same : Medem -Außentief 53 ° 49 '40 " N , 8 ° 53' 45" O |
| Parting posture | Lintig lock |
| The End | Weser : Geeste -Mündung 53 ° 32 '9 " N , 8 ° 34' 38" O |
| Descent structures | Otterndorf, Lintig, Bremerhaven |
| inflow | Flögelner lake drainage |
| Used river | upper medem , geeste |
| Top speed. | 8 km / h |
| Downhill | Direction Bremerhaven |
| Responsible WSD | NLWKN and Bremenports |
The Elbe-Weser shipping route , also known as the Elbe-Weser inland shipping route , is a shortcut between the Lower Elbe and the Weser with a length of 54.7 kilometers for smaller coasters . This stretch of canal includes 60 kilometers of canal dikes and 45 kilometers of canal byways. It begins in Otterndorf with the Medem -Aussentief and the Hadelner Canal that flows into it , from Bad Bederkesa as the Bederkesa-Geeste Canal to the Geeste , which flows into the Weser in Bremerhaven . The state of Lower Saxony is the owner of the canal stretches , while the large, Lower Saxony part is maintained by the Lower Saxony State Agency for Water Management, Coastal and Nature Conservation (NLWKN) in the Stade branch. The Bremen part with the lock at the Bremerhaven tidal barrier is maintained by Bremenports .
history
The rulers in the Elbe-Weser triangle wanted to build a connection between the Elbe and the Weser very early on , as the ships had to make a wide berth around Cuxhaven , Neuwerk and Scharhörn . This detour was necessary because the Wadden Sea with its shallows in the area between the mouth of the Weser and Elbe is not navigable. When the sea was stormy, no small ships could dare to pass through. The first records between Sachsen-Lauenburg , the Archdiocese of Bremen and the Hadlers are dated to 1542. As early as 1608 to 1609, the city of Bremen (as the sovereign of Lehe and Bederkesa) dug a section, but under pressure from the Archbishop of Bremen (who owned the left bank of the Geeste) it was filled in again. There were further attempts under Swedish direction in 1661, and under Hanoverian from 1768 to 1773. Under French rule from 1806 to 1811 another plan was worked out, but not implemented; this planning pursued the goal of creating a connection between the Oste and the Geeste.
Commercial shipping had its busiest years on this waterway at the end of the 1960s, declined from 1973 and practically no longer takes place here today. Recreational shipping, on the other hand, continues to grow and, like tourism as a whole, is an economic factor in the rural region.
Hadelner Canal
Only with the construction of the Hadelner Canal (also incorrectly called Hadeler or Hadler Canal), an approximately 32 km long navigable drainage canal between the Elbe near Otterndorf and the lake near Bad Bederkesa, the shipping route became possible. The Hadelner Canal was built from 1852 to 1855 and served until the 1990s, in addition to drainage, especially for small coasters and pleasure boats as a shortcut between the Weser and the Lower Elbe.
The canal is designed for ships with a length of up to 33.5 m and a width of up to five meters. A draft of up to 1.5 m is possible and, due to the many bridges, a maximum height of 2.7 m. Contrary to assumptions to the contrary, the canal is fully serviced, not least because its cross-section is necessary for draining the Hadelner Sietland .
Bederkesa-Geeste Canal
Even before 1648 the city of Bremen wanted to build a canal from the Geeste to Bederkesa during its rule over Lehe and Bederkesa , but refrained from doing so because of the objection of the Archbishop of Bremen , who was sovereign over the south bank of the Geeste.
The Bederkesa-Geeste Canal was built between 1858 and 1860, as the Hadelner Canal had long been economically successful and the Kingdom of Hanover saw a connection to its new port of Geestemünde as useful. These were 11 kilometers but only until the construction of Sielanlage Schiffdorfer floodgate in Geeste 1898 and only at high tide passable. Through the sluice the tidal high water could no longer penetrate far enough inland. Only after the deepening between 1935 and 1937 was it possible to sail again with barges. There were further recesses for larger sizes between 1957 and 1961.
The Geeste
The Geeste rises in Hipstedt in the Rotenburg (Wümme) district ten kilometers west of Bremervörde and drains a large part of the former Wesermünde district (now the Cuxhaven district ).
The construction of the third lock in the Geeste in 1898 made this river independent of the tide, but also led to the depth of the fairway in the Geeste Canal becoming too shallow. Until 1935, only limited shipping was possible. After further construction work in the years 1957 to 1961 and the construction of a tide and storm surge barrier in Bremerhaven, shipping traffic improved significantly.
Locks
The Hadelner Canal has a lock in Otterndorf. Locking takes place regularly in the summer months and only after registration in winter. The lock also serves as a sewer to drain the canal. In low-precipitation weather, the sails are incomplete in order to maintain the water level in the canal that is necessary for shipping. If there is a very large amount of surface water, a cross connection to the Medem is opened to pump water from the Hadelner Canal through the Otterndorf pumping station into the Elbe.
The second lock is located at Lintig in the Bederkesa-Geeste Canal and can be operated by every skipper himself all year round. The water levels before and after this lock are often very similar. However, it enables the water balance in Hadeln and the Geeste area to be regulated independently of one another.
The so-called Schiffdorfer Stauschleuse is not a lock, but a sewer system that could only be passed through when the tide was running out. It has been out of service since the Bremerhaven Tide Barrier was founded, so the gates are always open.
The lock at the Bremerhaven tide lock locks daily. The unusual lock times, two hours before and after the high tide, result from the low clearance height of the bridge and the avoidance of large lifting heights during the lock process. From there to the mouth, the water level depends on the tides .
Just before the mouth of the Geeste in Bremerhaven is the storm surge barrier, which was completed in 1961 and is only closed when the water level is over 7 m.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dirk Peters : 125 years of the Schiffdorfer floodgate. A technical monument to the history of hydraulic engineering in the Elbe-Weser triangle . In: Men from the Morgenstern Heimatbund at the mouth of the Elbe and Weser. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 817 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven January 2018, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 5.4 MB ; accessed on July 2, 2019]).