Kaiserschleuse

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Car transporter in the Kaiserschleuse

The Kaiserschleuse is a lock in the city ​​of Bremen's overseas port area of ​​Bremerhaven . It connects the imperial ports I – III with the Weser .

history

Old Kaiserschleuse

The first (small) Kaiserschleuse was built in 1876 as a direct cross-connection to the Kaiserhafen (I). When it was no longer sufficient for the ships of the North German Lloyd , the second (large) Kaiserschleuse was built from 1892 onwards. The commissioning took place on August 23, 1897, the official inauguration on September 20, 1897. At that time it was with a length of 223.2 m between the heads (chamber length 200 m), a passage width of 28 m (chamber width 45 m) and one Threshold of 7.0 m below chart zero by far the largest lock in the world. The construction costs amounted to 18.5 million marks (converted and adjusted for inflation about 131.9 million euros), a total of more than 20,000 piles were driven and 25 million bricks were installed.

Residential buildings

Houses on Inselstrasse

For the employees of the Bremen port administration - lock keepers of the Kaiserschleuse and craftsmen of the repair shop and the port power station on Wiegandstrasse - the residential buildings Inselstrasse 1-5 were built between 1878 and 1914. Although the port power plant was closed and the repair shop was relocated to Geestemünde, the residential buildings were used according to their purpose and were inhabited by around 20 employees and their families. Built on simple floor plans, the wall structure of the houses showed charming historicizing style elements. They had to give way to the construction of the lock.

Extension of the lock

Inauguration of the new Kaiserschleuse (2011)

From 2007 to 2011 the Kaiserschleuse was expanded to a passage width of 55 m and a length of 305 m, in order to offer enough space for the ever-growing RoRo ships and the accessibility of the ports behind the lock during maintenance work or failures of one of the ensure both locks. It thus reaches the Panamax dimensions . Construction costs of 233 million euros were expected. In 2010, the northern sluice gate, which weighs 2,200 tons and is 57 meters long, 23 meters high and nine meters wide, was swam in.

The new Kaiserschleuse was officially inaugurated on April 29, 2011. The first ship passed through was the car transporter Fidelio of the shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen . The new Kaiserschleuse was completed after three and a half years of construction; 640,000 m³ of soil were excavated, 6,800 m³ of underwater concrete and 45,000 m³ of concrete were used. There were also 4,300 tons of reinforcing steel, 6,300 tons of structural steel and 25,800 tons of steel for sheet piling and their steel piles. The expanded Kaiserschleuse lock is just as wide as the new locks of the Panama Canal , which were officially opened on June 26, 2016.

Blocking due to damage to the structure

Reserve gate of the new Kaiserschleuse

In October 2014, a check revealed massive damage to the undercarriage rails and their attachment. This required the Kaiserschleuse to be closed to shipping until June 2015, as the outer head had to be drained and the rails replaced. The cause of the excessive wear has yet to be determined; costs of 2 to 3 million euros have been calculated. In June 2015 it was announced that divers had discovered further damage to the inland head of the lock, the removal of which will result in a further closure.

literature

  • Hauke ​​Krebs et al .: Locks in Bremen and Bremerhaven. In: Hansa . Issue 5/2011, pp. 88-91, Schiffahrts-Verlag Hansa, Hamburg 2011, ISSN  0017-7504 .
  • New "gateway to the world". In: Inland Shipping. Issue 6/2011, p. 57/58, Schiffahrts-Verlag Hansa, Hamburg 2011, ISSN  0939-1916 .

Web links

Commons : Kaiserschleuse Bremerhaven  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arthur Baitinger: Residential building (Inselstrasse). In: Lars U. Scholl (ed.): Bremerhaven - A guide to the history of the port. Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum / Ditzen, Bremerhaven 1980, p. 125.
  2. ↑ Frank Miener: Built in gate for the Kaiserschleuse. weser-kurier.de, October 23, 2010, accessed on October 25, 2010 .
  3. ↑ major project. bis-bremerhaven.de, accessed on January 7, 2011 .
  4. ↑ After nine years of construction: the larger Panama Canal is ready. Article from June 26, 2016 in Münchner Merkur. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  5. ↑ Peter Kleinort: The Kaiserschleuse should be operational again from June. In: Daily port report from February 20, 2015, p. 1
  6. ↑ Kaiserschleuse remains closed. Massive wear damage - work cannot start until 2015. In: Daily port report of November 12, 2014, p. 15
  7. ↑ Peter Kleinort: Sluice open to a limited extent · Shipping can use the facility in Bremerhaven by the hour. In: Daily port report of December 9, 2014, p. 2
  8. ↑ New damage to the Kaiserschleuse. In: Daily port report of June 12, 2015, p. 2

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 29 ″  N , 8 ° 33 ′ 33 ″  E