Nordhorn-Almelo Canal

Location of the canal

The Nordhorn-Almelo Canal (abbreviation: NAK) is a section of the left-hand Emsian canal network .

location

The canal runs between the German city of Nordhorn and the Dutch city of Almelo . On the German side, it is still partially navigable for small boats. It originally had a bottom width of 7.5 m, on the surface the width was 13.9 m. The canal was 33 km long and had six locks and ten drawbridges , but not all of them have survived. The lock in Reutum is a coupling lock . Just before the border is the only German lock, the Frensdorfer Haar lock . The old customs office is on the north bank of the Dutch-German border . In Nordhorn there are various canal harbors that were used by the textile industry , such as the Klukkert harbor , which today again has a pier and a slipway for recreational boating. On the Dutch side, long stretches of the canal have been filled in. In Harseveld is the Schuivenhuisje , a weir over which the channel water from the river Dinkel is supplied to regulate the water level in the channel. This building appeared in an advertisement for a well-known Dutch rusks bakery. The canal is connected to the Vechte in Nordhorn and to the Ems-Vechte canal via the connecting canal .

history

The NAK is part of the Left Ems canal network, which was built between 1870 and 1904. The reason for its construction was a contract between the Netherlands and the Prussian government from 1876, which regulated the canal connections between the two countries. Until the 1850s, local shipping took place on the Vechte, but it increasingly silted up. The NAK was completed on the Dutch side on February 8, 1889 and on the German side in 1904. Due to its shallow depth, it remained insignificant for supra-regional shipping. The barges had a load capacity of up to 200 tons. The last peat barge passed through the canal in 1960. Today it is still used to drain the bogs and since its closure it has become a habitat for plants, fish and water birds.

The Nordhorn-Almelo Canal, including the Klukkert harbor and the avenues that accompany it, is a listed building . In addition, the Nordhorn-Almelo Canal, the connecting and border locks, the customs clearance and the old customs house on the Dutch border form a group of structures and are a monument according to Section 3 (3) NDSchG .