The Strépy-Thieu boat lift (french: L'ascenseur funiculaire de Strépy-Thieu) lies on a branch of the Canal du Centre in the municipality of

Le Rœulx Le Rœulx (; wa, El Rû) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, Le Rœulx had a total population of 7,977. The total area is 42.80 km2 which gives a population density of 186 ...

, Hainaut,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. With a height difference of between the upstream and downstream reaches, it was the tallest

boat lift A boat lift, ship lift, or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between water at two different elevations, and is an alternative to the canal lock. It may be vertically moving, like the Anderton boat lift in England, rotational, like ...

in the world upon its completion, and remained so until the Three Gorges Dam ship lift in China was completed in January 2016.

History

The boat lift was designed during the Canal du Centre's modernisation program in order to replace a system of two

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

and four lifts dating from 1888 to 1919. The canal itself began operations in 1879 and its locks and lifts were able to accommodate vessels of up to 300 tonnes. By the 1960s, this was no longer adequate for the new European standard of 1350 tonnes for

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

traffic, and a replacement was sought. Construction of the lift commenced in 1982 and was not completed until 2002 at an estimated cost of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

160 million (then 6.4 billion BEF), but once operational, permitted river traffic of up to the new 1350-tonne standard to pass between the waterways of the

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

and

Scheldt The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corresponding to ...

rivers. The lift increased river traffic from 256 kT in 2001 to 2,295 kT in 2006. The four older lifts on the Canal du Centre, which became bypassed by the new Canal du Centre, are on the

UNESCO World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

list, because of their architectural and historical value.

Design

The structure at Strépy-Thieu consists of two independent

counterweight A counterweight is a weight that, by applying an opposite force, provides balance and stability of a mechanical system. The purpose of a counterweight is to make lifting the load faster and more efficient, which saves energy and causes less wea ...

ed caissons which travel vertically between the upstream and downstream sections. Because of

Archimedes' Principle Archimedes' principle (also spelled Archimedes's principle) states that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces. Archimedes' ...

, the caissons weigh the same whether they are laden with a boat or simply contain water. In practice, variations in the water level mean that the mass of each caisson varies between 7200 and 8400 tonnes. The caissons have useful dimensions of and a water depth of between . Each caisson is supported by 112 suspension cables (for counterbalance) and 32 control cables (for lifting/lowering), each of diameter. The mass of the counterbalance was calculated to keep the tension in each of the control cables below at all times. The suspension cables pass over idler pulleys with a diameter of . Four

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

s power eight winches per caisson via speed-reduction

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

es and the lift is completed in seven minutes. The structure is massively reinforced to provide rigidity against torsional forces during operation and has a mass of approximately 200,000 tonnes. The vertically moving watertight gates are designed to withstand a impact from a 2000-tonne vessel. The boat lift is promoted as a tourist attraction in its own right by the government of Hainaut. A pedestrian ticket for a one-way ride on the lift costs €5.50.

References

External links

* *
Canal du Centre website
*
Hainaut official website
*

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strepy-Thieu Boat Lift Boat lifts Locks of Belgium Buildings and structures in Hainaut (province) Transport infrastructure completed in 2002 2002 establishments in Belgium

History

Design

See also

References

Further reading

External links