Saint-Louis-Arzviller inclined plane
The boat lift Saint-Louis/Arzviller (French plan incliné de Saint-Louis/Arzviller ) is part of the Rhine - Marne Canal. It is in operation since 1969 and replaced with a height difference of 44.55 meters 17 former locks between Saint-Louis/Arzviller in Lorraine and the valley of the Zorn.
Technology
The plant is a boat lift with wet promotion; A core is mounted on rollers trough, which is held by cables, and is located with two counterweights at equilibrium. The trough is 41.50 m long and 5.50 m wide. The water depth is 3.20 m; the water-filled trough weighs about 900 tons. He is moved by electrically driven winches on an inclined plane with a gradient of 41% perpendicular to its greatest extent. The inclined plane connects the mountain -side channel coming from the direction of Nancy, with the valley side channel that leads in the direction of Strasbourg.
On the downhill, the trough is filled with so much water that its weight is slightly larger than that of the counterweights. For the ascent can be reversed to drain some water into the valley side channel so that the trough is slightly lighter than the counterweights. For the drive of the trough therefore range from two electric motors with outputs of 120 hp, which are connected as Ward-Leonard converters. The acceleration during acceleration and deceleration is 0.02 m/s2 and the maximum speed of 0.60 m / s
If the trough arrives at the valley or mountain station, the space between the trough and the channel by a movable sealing frame is initially closed. Then the trough and the Kanaltor be raised and thus the ships allows the entry and exit. Before leaving, the two gates are lowered again and the gap is emptied by opening a valve. Thereafter, the sealing frame is lifted again and the tray can drive off.
The time from the mountain -side entrance to the valley side exit is about 25 minutes of which relate to the journey of the trough 4 minutes. The elevator is able to smuggle about 40 cargo ships per day in each direction.
Besides this boat lift are only two similar structures with inclined lift in operation worldwide. The one in the Belgian Ronquières ( Schiffshebewerk Ronquières ) on the canal Charleroi -Brussels works on the same principle, only the troughs are created in a longitudinal design, while the elevator of St. Louis- Arzviller cross pulls the trough to the ship's direction. The ship lift at the Krasnoyarsk Reservoir in the Russian Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei can be described as oversized cog railway.
Construction
The 1853 opened the Rhine- Marne Canal had overcome the height difference between the summit level in the Vosges and the Zorntal along the Teigelbachtals with a lock staircase of 17 locks over a length of 4 km. Because of the tight radii of curvature and the short impoundments of the channel in this area, the flight of locks Arzviller was a formidable bottleneck for shipping. An expansion of the channel in this area has been hampered by the narrowness of the valley and existing viaducts of the railway line Paris -Strasbourg.
Therefore, in 1962 a competition was organized with the condition that in the proposed solutions, the flight of locks should be replaced by a single piece of work. The finally realized design had to prevail against 39 other proposals that had been created by nine different providers.
The construction phase lasted from 1964 to 1969 and included not only the construction of the actual ship lift and the duct connections to the existing channel. Mountain side, this is a 3.3 km long canal was built on a slope, which extends the summit level; downhill side needed only a new section of 1 km in length in the valley of the Zorn valley. The lift was designed so that it would be extended even for a tandem to a trough later. For a boat lift with cross- promotion that time there was no modern predecessor, so that the entire project had an experimental character. On January 27, 1969, the boat lift for was opened to traffic, thus shortening the journey time on the route Strasbourg -Nancy one day.
Economic Aspects
At the time of construction of the ship lift was considered an important technical advance which should facilitate trade significantly. The staff savings of two operating engineers compared with 17 lock-keepers should cover the operating costs of the elevator. But soon thereafter, the transport of goods by road and rail was so much cheaper that freight transport on the Rhine -Marne Canal was unprofitable. The second trough was therefore never built. Today, the descent structure is mainly used by pleasure craft. However, the boat lift made substantial income from tourism by guided tours and boat trips are offered.
Accident on July 4, 2013
On 4 July 2013, was an accident without injury the boat tour boat Paris, located in consequence of several thousand cubic meters of water from the upper channel and, in the upper position, flocked tray. Due to the threat of flooding to the nearby village Lutzelbourg was evacuated for several hours. Since then, the elevator out of service.