Page 21 - Hafen Hamburg | Broschüre | Port of Hamburg Magazine 4.2020

The fast way to the Baltic
INFRASTRUCTURE PORT ■
The small locks in Kiel (r.) must be lengthened before the large ones are renovated.
This year the Kiel Canal is celebrating its 125th anniversary. This is being marked by a range of major works on upgrading the world’s most heavily used artificial waterway.
The Kiel Canal – or NOK Nord-Ostsee-Kanal – plays a crucial part for Germany as a seaport location. De- pending on a ship’s departure and destination ports, the canal can shorten the route between the North Sea and the Baltic by an average of 250 nautical miles. This saves a lot of time and reduces costs. Germany’s most important seaport, the Port of Hamburg, in par- ticular, profits from this international waterway. In 2019, cargoes totalling around 83.5 million tons were transported through the canal. About 29,000 ships and around 12,000 sports boats passed through. Various challenging construction works are currently under way to make the canal fit for the future. These include building a fifth lock chamber in Brunsbüttel and straightening the last narrow stretch in the East- ern section of the canal. The Federal government is investing a total of 2.6 billion euros in maintaining and expanding the canal. Of this sum, over the next ten years 500 million euros will be invested in the 20-kilo- metre stretch between Kiel and Grosskönigsförde. The balance of at least two billion euros is earmarked for additional projects (see box).
That is money well spent to remain competitive. The eastern section of the canal has been a bottleneck. Since mid-October the Federal Waterways and Ship-
ping Administration (WSV) has begun realigning the route here. For Andreas Scheuer, Federal Minister of Transport, this represents a clear signal:
CANAL DATA:
Length: 98.6 kilometres Depth: 11 metres
Breadth: 162 metres, in parts 102.5 metres
Max. permissible ship speed: 15 kph
Total cargo volume in 2019: Approx. 83.5 million tons
Transits in 2019: Approx. 29,000 vessels
Source: WSV
Two large lock chambers and two small ones in Kiel-Holtenau
Two large lock chambers and two small ones in Brunsbüttel,
5th large lock chamber under construction
Port of Hamburg Magazine | December 2020 | 21
© WSA Kiel-Holtenau