Spotlight |
Left: Figure 5. Remains of an old sluice, presumably from the 17th-18th century, excavated during the construction of the Malczyce Dam on the Oder River (photo: Jan Winter)
At the end of the 18th century, Poland lost its independence for over 100 years, Russia, Germany and Austria occupied its lands. It significantly impacted the development of hydraulic engineering, which developed very differently in each of the conqueror’s countries.
Below: Figure 6. The Buczyniec inclined plane carriage on the Elblag Canal from 1860 with a level difference of 20.62m (photo: Jan Winter)
Historic waterways The first written sources in Poland mentioning inland
Bottom: Figure 7. The dam of the dry reservoir in Miedzygorze (photo: Jan Winter)
water transport date back to the 11th-13th centuries. They refer to the privileges of free navigation on the Vistula and Odra rivers from the country’s inland to the Baltic Sea. The main cargoes were salt and herring. As the number of cities grew and the economy intensified, inland shipping developed, as in other parts of Europe. In the 18th century, for the first time in the history of the Oder River, a tour along the river identified obstacles in the riverbed that impeded navigation and designed the works needed to secure places at risk from flooding. The relics of these structures can still be
found today. During the construction of the Malczyce Dam on the Oder River (1997-2018) (Figure 1), the remains of an old wooden sluice gate were unearthed (Figure 5). Poland’s oldest canal, the Dobrzyce Canal (Figure 1), with a length of about 2600m, was dug in 1331- 1334 on the initiative of the burghers of Zalewski, with the permission of the Teutonic Commandery of Dzierzgon. Its purpose was to enable the floating of grain and timber across the Drweca and Vistula rivers to the Baltic Sea. Around 1850, the widened and deepened canal was joined into the Elblag Canal system, which connected the Ostroda Lake system with the port of Elblag and the exit to the Baltic Sea. The first ship sailed through the canal in 1861. Along the canal route, there are unique ramps, enabling ships to overcome the difference in water levels. Their construction aimed to level out the 99.52m difference. Five slipways were constructed, the largest of which overcomes a difference of 21.99m. There are two trolleys on each ramp, using two parallel tracks. When one goes in one direction, the other goes in the opposite direction. The trolleys weigh 24 tonnes each, and they move up when the ramp is started. Then, when the trolley going towards the lower channel passes the top of the ramp one goes up, and the other goes down, and then they balance each other out. Conversely, both travel down in the final section when the trolley travelling to the upper channel passes the top. The short section where both trolleys go up determines the carrying capacity of the ramp – it can transport ships weighing up to 50 tonnes in one direction or two ships weighing up to 38 tonnes, each one in both directions at the same time (Figure 6). Currently, the route is used for tourism and due to its natural and cultural values, the area has been placed under legal protection in the form of the Elblag Canal Protected Landscape Area. Another historic shipping route is the Augustow Canal (Figure 1). The first plan to build the canal was made in 1823, when the Kingdom of Poland had problems with access to the Baltic Sea due to the tariff war with Prussia. Work on the canal started in 1824 and was finally completed in 1838. Its operation began in 1839. Because of the division of Europe, after the Second World War, only 80km of the canal with fourteen sluices are left within Poland. Hence, three sluices and one in the border strip remain within Belarus. The Augustow Canal was entered into the register of Polish History monuments as early as 1968. It is now used for tourism and is one of Poland’s most beautiful canoe routes. There are many routes among historic waterways
in Poland, including the canals of the Vistula-Odra waterway (Slesinski, Górnonotecki and Bydgoski Canals), the Jagiellonski Canal or the now defunct Klodnica Canal. The Jagiellonski Canal was built in 1483. It connects the Elblag River with the Nogat River. It is 5.7km long and is the shortest inland waterway connecting Elblag with Gdansk. The Klodnica Canal was constructed in the first half of the 19th century. Unfortunately, only the remnants of old sluices remain today. The function of the old canal was taken over by the Gliwice Canal, connecting the Silesian coalfield with the Oder River. The location of the channels is shown in Figure 1.
12 | July 2023 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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