SHIP ELEVATORS IN BELGIUM


I have earlier written about Belgian culture. Today I want to tell you about Belgium’s INDUSTRIAL CULTURE.  

 In the beginning of the 19th century the southern part of Belgium, Wallonia, was the most industrialised part of Europe – apart from England. It was based upon coal mines, iron and steelworks and a big network of internal waterways for transport.  East of Mons you can f.ex. see a former huge industrial complex, which today is an art museum.  The owners in 1810 built a lot of houses for their workers around the factory.  These houses are still there. The place is called GRAND HORNU.
A very special side of the Walloon industrial culture was and are the so-called SHIP ELEVATORS.  They are huge elevators, which can lift ships up and down from different heights of the canals in the area. The first one in Houdeng-Goegnies was build in 1888. It can lift ships 15 meters up and down. Three more were added in 1917. Each of them can lift 17 meters. These old elevators are no longer in use. And they have got the status as UNESCO World Heritage.
Read more:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_Lifts_on_the_Canal_du_Centre   
A special elevator was built near the village of RONQUIÈRES. It functions as a sloping lock. Its length is 1430 meters. It functions with two huge “bath tubs”, which can take a ship of up to 5.200 tons up and down the slope.  The difference in height is 68 meters. 
The newest ship elevator is in STRÉPY-THIEU.  It was built in the years 1982-2002. The older elevators had become too small for new ships / barges. It can lift ships of a weight up to 1350 tons vertically up and down – 73 meters. It is the second biggest in the world. See photo.  The biggest one is in China.    The traffic on the canal increased from 256.000 tons in 2001 to 2.295.000 tons already in 2006.   
And why was all this work initiated?  There were economic as well as political reasons for it. The economic one was to shorten the water ways – and thereby reduce the transport costs.  The political reason was that until the elevators were built the Walloon industrial areas did not have access to Belgium’s biggest port, Antwerp.  There is a ridge between Wallonia and Flanders, where Antwerp is placed. Instead they were dependent upon the French sea port in Dunkerque.  They did not want to continue that way. That is why the ship elevators were built in order “to lift the ships” up on the other side of the ridge.   And it was all based on the fact that sea transportation in average is seven times cheaper than the second cheapest way of transport. 
A visit to the ship elevators is highly recommended.  They are unique!




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