Construction of a lock chamber

The Mittelland Canal has a considerable economic importance among the waterway network anal extension an adaptation of the Lock Sülfeld became essential. The southern chamber has been canceled and replaced by a new lock. A special feature is that the lock is crossed by the ICE route Hanover-Berlin.

In order to document possible changes caused by the new construction, a monitoring network was created and is monitored regularly.

The network consists of eight building-independent deep founded fixed-point-piers, five networkpoints on the lock platform of the northern chamber and on the wall of the economising basin and on further points. The individual measurement epochs are compared with each other for the proof of statistically significant point movements.

The images shown here are taken from brochures by the Water and Shipping Administration of the German Federation. Besides this Administration the Waterways and Shipping Directorate Central (Hanover) and the Department for the Extension of the Mittellandkanal (Hannover) were responsibly involved in planning and construction. In the figure “Lock-Panda” the network graphic was inserted (only approximately!) into a drawing from the brochure ‘New Construction of the Lock Sülfeld South’.