Scharnebeck twin ship lift
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The Scharnebeck twin ship lift is on the Elbe-Seitenkanal
Elbe-Seitenkanal
The Elbe Lateral Canal, or the Elbe-Seitenkanal in German, is a long canal in Lower Saxony, Germany. It runs from the Elbe near Lauenburg/Elbe to the Mittelland Canal near Gifhorn. It forms an important transport connection between southern and northern Germany, and it provides a bypass of a...
, which connects the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
(at Artlenburg
Artlenburg
Artlenburg is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Artlenburg has an area of 11.85 km² and a population of 1,619 ....
) and the Mittellandkanal
Midland Canal
The Mittelland Canal, also known as the Midland Canal, is a major canal in central Germany. It forms an important link in the waterway network of that country, providing the principal east-west inland waterway connection...
(near Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig , and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG...
).
The boat lift
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 and the canal inclined plane....
was built in Scharnebeck
Scharnebeck
Scharnebeck is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately northeast of Lüneburg. Scharnebeck is known for its twin ship lift, in the Elbe-Seitenkanal....
to the North-east of Lüneburg
Lüneburg
Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs...
in 1974 and was at that time the largest ship lift in the world. The first ship passed through the lift on 1975-12-05.
There is a museum at the site which can be visited by walkers.
Technical data
- Design: double counterweight lift
- Construction cost: 152 million Deutsche Mark
- Vertical lift: max. 38 m (depending on the water level of the Elbe)
- Trough size: usable length / usable width / water depth 105 m / 12 m / 3.38 m
- Gate safety: The catch ropes at the trough gates reduce the usable length of the trough by 5m.
- Total weight of the trough filled with water: 5,800 tTonneThe tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
- Total moving weight of a trough, the water contained, and associated parts: approx. 11,800 t
- Weight of one counterweight of which there are 224 per trough: approx. 26.5 t (giving a total of 5,936 t per trough)
- Dimensions of one counterweight: 6.8 m x 3.4 m x 0.32 m
- Thickness of the steel cables: 54 mm
- Source of power: 4 electric motors of 160 kW each (together about 870 horsepowerHorsepowerHorsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
) - Time taken to lift or lower a trough: 3 minutes
- Time taken to pass through the lift: 15–20 minutes
- Visitors per year: approx. 500,000
External links
See also
- Schiffshebewerk Scharnebeck, article on the German-language WikiPedia from which this article had been translated
- List of boat lifts
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, Le Rœulx, Belgium - Peterborough lift lockPeterborough Lift LockThe Peterborough Lift Lock is a boat lift located on the Trent Canal in the city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, and is Lock 21 on the Trent-Severn Waterway....
, OntarioOntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada - Falkirk WheelFalkirk WheelThe Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift located in Scotland, UK,connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, opened in 2002. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk which is in central Scotland...
, ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, United Kingdom - Anderton boat liftAnderton Boat LiftThe Anderton Boat Lift near the village of Anderton, Cheshire, in north-west England provides a vertical link between two navigable waterways: the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal....
, Anderton, United Kingdom