Havel Canal

The Havelkanal ( HvK ) is a federal waterway in the state of Brandenburg and starts at 0.41 km between Niederneuendorf and Hennig village on the Havel (km 10.30 of the Havel - Oder waterway ) and ends at km 34.59 in Paretz near of Ketzin turn Havel (km 32.27 of the Lower Havel waterway ). He is recognized as a waterway class IV with restrictions; from Güterverkehrszentrum Wustermark ( 20.7 km ) towards Lower Havel waterway running the expansion to class Vb.

It has a length of 34.18 km and overcomes at the channel level Schonwalde a difference in height of about two meters.

Responsible for the administration of the initial distance to the road bridge Spandau Avenue in Hennigsdorf the Waterways and Shipping Office Berlin, then the Waterways and Shipping Office Brandenburg.

Prehistory

In the early 1950s it was decided by the Council of Ministers of the GDR an extension of the Mark waterway network. The construction of the original channel of peace mentioned new channel has been with the Council Decision of 19 April 1951. The following reasons for its construction have been indicated at the time:

The wide bypassing the city of Berlin on the waterway between the Elbe and the Oder, especially West Berlin.
The shortening of the path between the said rivers at nine kilometers.
The preparation of an impassable for 1000 -ton ships connection between said rivers, bypassing the (then) to small Spandau lock.
Improving the drainage of adjacent agricultural land during the collectivization of agriculture.

Lines

The good 34 kilometer long canal branches off to the west of the Havel at Niederneuendorf. After a run of 11.3 km, it meets the previous Niederneuendorfer channel in order to recoil after a further 3.6 kilometers to the south and reach the former channel bed of Brieselanger drainage channel at channel 16.4 kilometers. At 20.5 miles it empties into the old main shipping channel Nauen - Paretz whose bed he uses about seven kilometers. South of Buchow - Karpzow crosses the canal route in a deep incision Paarener the mountain. This course was chosen to bypass the area of Wublitz. In this area there are up to 18 meters of massive layers of peat. To ensure their stability here to be erected embankments would have required the delivery transport of 250,000 m³ friable material.

At kilometer 8.75 is the lock Schonwalde. Economical water was thought to the construction of three locks, but an impairment would have shown for shipping. Through the construction of a lock only the respective Havel water levels are effective both in the upper and in the lower position. This resulted in an extensive two-sided enclosure of the Havel channel with flood-free channel dams. Behind the new dams and drainage ditches and pumping stations were built for drainage of agricultural land.

The cross section of the channel

It was originally planned to put on the Havel canal in two stages, of which, however to date only the first stage has been realized. The first stage provided for the two-aisled expansion for large - Plau measure ships. In a stream width of approximately 34.50 meters and a channel depth of 3.00 meters, a cross section of about 68 square meters revealed. This would result in a ship with a draft of 1.75 meters circumstances that do not correspond to modern and contemporary waterway. In preparation for the second stage, which provided for a two-aisled traffic with 1,000 t ships, seven passing places were created, including the Schleusenvorhäfen. The passing places are at least 500 meters long and 37 meters wide at water level. The water depth was provided with 3.50 meters. Since the smallest radii of curvature of the channel is 1,000 meters, preparations were provided for extensions. By today's standards, the embankments are totally inadequate and do not reach the channel bottom. They consist only of a nearly twenty centimeters thick riprap with grain sizes between 150 and 250 millimeters on a ten centimeter thick layer of gravel with grain sizes between 30 and 80 millimeters. This provided for the extension shore was more or less provisionally fixed with a weak rubble layer.

Lock

The lock Schonwalde at km 8.75 has a usable length of 85.00 meters and a width of 12.00 meters. The maximum fall height is 2.20 meters.

Ship traffic at the lock

It will be the total vehicles considered that passed the sluice. In addition to the cargo vessels include push boats, passenger ships, pleasure boats and other vehicles. This represents a decrease of vessel traffic during the same period by 56 percent.

The bridges (selection)

At least ten bridges were built with the opening to traffic on the channel. The highway bridge today BAB 10 was 1978. It is currently (2010) built new, others have been replaced by more modern bridge structures under various transport projects. Recorded are only in the sources ( literature and links ) documented bridges. The numbering (column 1) and kilometer (column 2 ) is carried out by the branch of the canal from the Havel-Oder waterway. In column 3, the most bridges are documented in the image. In column 4 are the places in their vicinity, they are indicated. The text "Notes" column lists data of the bridges and, where applicable, to their name and are also shed light on the naming. The sixth and final column linked the coordinates of the structures.

The construction process

Construction on the canal began in May 1951 in two separate sections, a northern and a southern section. In the southern part Paretz'and to Brieselang the earthworks were carried out almost exclusively with engineering of the waterway management in-house. Work on the northern section were transferred mainly SOEs. To their order volume included the buildings such as the lock keeper's service homestead. In the southern sector of the construction progress was small in the first few months, because the construction sites, repair workshops and a night lighting had to be set up. The majority of the proposed Dishwasher and excavators had first to be overhauled. Then there was a lack of trained personnel for large appliances. However, after getting over the initial problems, the work proceeded quickly. Was carried out in three lots, in which case a two-shift operation a total of 1500 workers were employed. At times were 16 dredgers in operation and seven Dishwasher promoted the gained ground on the off -lying polders. After a construction period of 13 months, the waterway could be opened to traffic on 28 June 1952. This was an extraordinary achievement given the difficult conditions of the postwar period. To make any of these conditions were added during the construction of the channel:

There was no preparation time and therefore no site investigation.
The design has been sliding, ie carried out on site.
There was only defective material in a very tight design available. This resulted in the easiest chamber wall construction of the lock Schonwalde and bridge structures with central piers that were a hindrance to the navigation. The railway bridges were built with support segments that could be mountains of blown or bridges. These girders were already over fifty years old, which led to a rapid deterioration of the bridges.
There were only obsolete, hard -prone repair machinery and equipment available. The wait staff was trained initially flawed and inexperienced.

Overall, a lock, a weir, five pumping stations, two culverts, an intake structure, ten bridges, a lock keeper's service farmstead and a current master farmstead were built in the relatively short construction period. Furthermore, 29 kilometers dams were heaped and 60 km dug trenches. For the shorelines of 230,000 cubic meters of stone were used. Large parts of the shore were fixed with rubble from Berlin. When the necessary Moor blasting about fifty tons of explosives were used. On channel 40,000 trees have been replanted as a windbreak and newly planted about 60 acres of jetting.

After 1990, a freight village ( FV ) of the channel of the Lower Havel waterway ago for FV was at Wustermark (km 21.6 to 22.0 ) built and expanded out.

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