Niederfinow Nord boat lift

Niederfinow Nord boat lift
	; Old (front) and new boat lift
Data
place	Niederfinow ( Brandenburg )
builder	ARGE Neues Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow
Construction year	under construction until 2021
height	approx. 55 m
Floor space	approx. 6170 m²
Coordinates	52 ° 50 ′ 59.4 " N , 13 ° 56 ′ 31" E Coordinates: 52 ° 50 ′ 59.4 " N , 13 ° 56 ′ 31" E

The Niederfinow Nord boat lift in Brandenburg is a boat lift under construction at the eastern end of the Oder-Havel Canal , a section of the Havel-Oder waterway for which the Eberswalde Waterways and Shipping Office is responsible. It is intended to completely replace the neighboring old and smaller Niederfinow ship lift .

target

With the connection of the greater Berlin area through a developed Havel-Oder waterway, the business location Brandenburg is to be strengthened, since a considerable part of the freight traffic between the metropolitan areas of Stettin ( Polish: Szczecin ) and Berlin is carried out by water. At the same time, the new building will remove a bottleneck on the only trans-European east-west waterway connection between Szczecin and Duisburg (via Berlin, Magdeburg , Hanover and Münster ).

After completion of the project, the Berlin – Szczecin connection should also be competitive for container transport by water. In contrast to the previous ship lift, the new building will enable two-layer container ships , unseparated push convoys and large motor ships to be accommodated . The transport capacity will be increased by the new building.

The construction

Preparatory construction work began in winter 2006/2007 with the clearing of the forest on the construction site . In 2007 a transformer station was built to supply the construction site with electricity . The construction site facility was set up in 2008 and parts of the lowest lock (lock IV) of the Niederfinow lock staircase were filled.

The official laying of the foundation stone was carried out on March 23, 2009 by the then Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee , Brandenburg's Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck and representatives of the Berlin Waterways Construction Office and the construction companies.

The construction pit sheeting was created in March and April 2009 using a combination of steel girders and sheet piles. A total of 217 girders and 214 filler piles were placed in the subsoil . The girders, which are around 24 meters long, weigh around six tons. In order to ensure the stability of the construction pit sheeting, grouted anchors with crossbars were installed in the sheet pile wall in May 2009 . From mid-June, the excavation of the construction pit was carried out as dry and wet excavation. In July, a suction excavator was used in the excavation pit filled with water to remove another four meters of soil under water. Around 85,000 m³ of soil had been removed by the end of August 2009. Part of this soil was built into the temporary cofferdam built at the Oberhafen. Lock III of the lock staircase was filled with the vacuumed soil for static reasons. To prevent the concrete bed from being pushed up by groundwater , 1033 buoyancy anchors were installed underwater between the beginning of September and the end of October 2009. From September 2009 extensive earthworks took place on the future land abutment of the canal bridge and in November the first concreting on the abutment.

In 2009, parallel to the work on the excavation, the new sewer dams at the future Oberhafen were constructed using sheet pile construction. The profile of the new sewer bed was also created. In July 2009 a new visitor entrance for the old ship lift was put into operation.

From March 15 to March 19, 2010, the 1.30 m thick underwater concrete floor was installed. 8,318 m³ of special concrete was distributed over an area of 6,100 m². On June 17, 2010, the pumping of around 75,000 m³ of water from the excavation began. From June 28, 2010, 28 bored piles with a diameter of 1.20 m and a length of up to 38 m were placed for the land abutment of the canal bridge. Between July 9th and August 16th, a 35 cm thick drain concrete layer was installed on the base of the excavation. From August 27, 2010, filigree panels were installed as permanent formwork for the trough. The reinforcement for the first concreting section of the water-impermeable trough has been installed since November 22, 2010. Parallel to this work, the application of the top floor and the greening of the already completed embankments began in April 2010.

On March 28 and 29, 2011, the in-situ concrete base was poured monolithically. The reinforced concrete base is approx. 2.80 m thick, the first segment was produced within 18 hours.

The completion, originally planned for 2015, has been delayed several times. The reasons given were difficulties in implementation, the insolvency of the companies involved and a shortage of skilled workers. As of 2020, commissioning is planned for 2021 and decommissioning of the old elevator for 2025.

Pictures of the construction progress

Excavation of the construction pit on June 30, 2009
Concreting of the underwater concrete base on March 18, 2010
Concreting reinforced concrete base on March 28, 2011
Construction status on February 15, 2012
Construction status on July 30, 2012
Construction status on December 19, 2012
Construction status on December 19, 2012
Construction status on March 21, 2013
Land abutment on March 21, 2013
Construction site April 27, 2014
Construction site April 27, 2014

Panorama of the construction site of the Niederfinow Nord ship lift on June 30, 2009

Panorama of the construction site of the Niederfinow Nord ship lift on March 6, 2011

Panorama of the construction site of the Niederfinow Nord ship lift on September 30, 2013

Panorama of the construction site of the Niederfinow Nord ship lift on August 9, 2014

Panorama of the construction site of the Niederfinow Nord ship lift on May 3, 2015

Panorama of the construction site of the Niederfinow Nord ship lift on April 22, 2019

Construction work

Concrete and reinforced concrete: approx. 70,000 m³
Reinforcing steel: approx. 4,500 t
Earth moving: approx. 800,000 m³
Sheet piling steel: approx. 35,000 m² (approx. 3,700 t)

contractor

ARGE Neues Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow
Companies	Jurisdiction
Bilfinger Construction GmbH	Reinforced concrete construction (trough and supporting structure)
DSD Brückenbau GmbH	Hydraulic steel construction (trough and canal bridge)
Johann Bunte Bauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG	Earthworks and special civil engineering
SIEMAG TECBERG GmbH	Mechanical engineering (trough drive and securing)

technology

overview

Location map

The Niederfinow Nord ship lift will be built using reinforced concrete . Like the existing lift , it will be built as a vertical lift with counterweight compensation. The trough is to be 125.50 meters long, 27.90 meters wide and four meters deep and weigh 9800 tons when filled with water. The mass remains the same with a retracted ship, as this always displaces its own mass of water.

The estimated costs amount to 285 million euros, which are primarily borne by the federal government. Of this, 48.7 million euros are co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund .

The ship lift will be driven by eight electric motors with an output of 160 kW each.