Upper Noteć Canals

The Upper Noteć Canals are an aggregate of inland water channels in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. They stem from the upper part of the Noteć lake, and mouth at their northern point into the Bydgoszcz Canal, west of the city territory. These canals have been put into operation between the 1770s and the 1880s and are still partly navigable today.

Location

The canals routes find their way through an ancient valley about 2 km wide, surrounded by steep edges:
* on the north, the Krajeńskie Lake District banks are 25 to 40 m high;
* on the south, the upper slopes of Toruń basin are 10 to 15 m high.
The area was created about 12,000 years ago by a divide between the basins of Oder and Vistula rivers.

This network of inland water channels comprises mainly:
* the "Notecki canal" (), from the northern tip of the Gopło lake to the village of Pakość and from the hamlet of Nowe Dąbie to the Bydgoszcz Canal, about west of the sluice Nr.6 of Osowa Góra, in the village of Łochowo;
* the "New Notecki canal" (), from Nowe Dąbie to the east of the hamlet of Dębinek, where it merges with the Noteć river bed;
* the "Kanał Bachorze", from Kruszwica to the Zgłowiączka river, a tributary of the Vistula;
* the "Stary Rów" water way ("Old ditch") near Inowrocław.

Main canals

In 1774, a first canal had been dug as part of the overall Bydgoszcz Canal project. Its path ran from the Noteć river at the level of Dębinek hamlet to the Bydgoszcz Canal, between the locks of Osowa Góra and Józefinki (near Nakło nad Notecią).
It now makes up the lower part of the Górnonotecki canal (). Widened and deepened at the beginning of the 19th century, it could then provision Noteć water to the Bydgoszcz Canal.

At the time of their inception, these canals brought an economic boost to Kuyavia and Greater Poland areas, by connecting Oder and Vistula through the Noteć river. Furthermore, the canal network became an essential piece of the "Bydgoszcz Water Junction" which linked two water routes: the "Vistula route" (from then Congress Poland to the Baltic Sea) and the "Bydgoszcz Canal" route leading to Szczecin and Berlin.

The economic importance of those waterways waned gradually after World War II. In addition, the discontinuation of the systematic dredging and cleaning works in the 1980s amplified their poor condition and impacted negatively the traffic: while about 530 ships sailed through the channels in 1959, there were 360 ones in 1980 and only 12 in 1990.

A thorough renovation project was launched in 2020.

Notecki canal ("Górnonotecki kanał")

The initial designs of this canal date back to the first half of the 19th century, as a solution to the recurring floods damaging the meadows along the Noteć river (1807, 1830). Worried that the works could lower the water level of the nearby Gopło lake and reduce the water supply for the Bydgoszcz Canal, the Prussian authorities kept delaying the required investment for a long time. Eventually, in 1857–1859, local private companies started to work on the boggy lowlands around the Gopło lake and the Noteć meadows. Official Prussian plans about the draining system of the upper Noteć river, from the Gopło lake to the Bydgoszcz canal, were only detailed in the 1870s.

On September 25, 1882, this canalised route was opened. It was 105 km long, of which over 30 km used the newly dug channel, thus avoiding the winding riverbed. The new path bypassed the river at Leszczyc hamlet and led to the village of Pakość. Besides, the water supply route channel from Dębinek to the mouth of the Bydgoszcz Canal was deepened and adapted for navigation, allowing navigation for ships up to 150 tons.

In 1879, the powiats of Inowrocław and Mogilno requested to the government to have the Pakoskie and Bronisławskie lakes included in the sewage system of the Noteć River. As a result, the Prussian authorities launched the project to link the lakes with a ditch.
In later years, further works allowed the linking up of the "Żnińskie Lakes" (Kierzkowskie, Ostrowieckie, Foluskie lakes), to the upper Noteć river by the addition of two locks in Wójcin and Ostrowiec and the creation of a long navigable channel(1905).

New Notecki canal ("Nowy Kanał Notecki" or "Nowonotecki Kanał ")

The new Notecki Canal was established in the 19th century, as a result of many years of work aiming at regulating the water flow in the upper Noteć