Boat lift explained

A boat lift, ship lift, or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between water at two different elevations, and is an alternative to the canal lock.

It may be vertically moving, like the Anderton boat lift in England, rotational, like the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland, or operate on an inclined plane, like the Ronquières inclined plane in Belgium.

History

A precursor to the canal boat lift, able to move full-sized canal boats, was the tub boat lift used in mining, able to raise and lower the 2.5 ton tub boats then in use. An experimental system was in use on the Churprinz mining canal in Halsbrücke near Dresden. It lifted boats using a moveable hoist rather than caissons. The lift operated between 1789 and 1868,^[1] and for a period of time after its opening engineer James Green reporting that five had been built between 1796 and 1830. He credited the invention to Dr James Anderson of Edinburgh.^[2]

The idea of a boat lift for canals can be traced back to a design based on balanced water-filled caissons in Erasmus Darwin's Commonplace Book (pp. 58–59) dated 1777–1778^[3]

In 1796 an experimental balance lock was designed by James Fussell and constructed at Mells on the Dorset and Somerset Canal, though this project was never completed. A similar design was used for lifts on the tub boat section of the Grand Western Canal entered into operation in 1835 becoming the first non-experimental boat lifts in Britain^[4] and pre-dating the Anderton Boat Lift by 40 years.

In 1904 the Peterborough Lift Lock designed by Richard Birdsall Rogers opened in Canada. This 19.8m (65feet) high lift system is operated by gravity alone, with the upper bay of the two bay system loaded with an additional of water as to give it greater weight.

Before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam Ship Lift, the highest boat lift, with a 73.15m (239.99feet) height difference and European Class IV (1350 tonne) capacity, was the Strépy-Thieu boat lift in Belgium opened in 2002.

The ship lift at the Three Gorges Dam, completed in January 2016, is high and able to lift vessels of up to 3,000 tons displacement.

The boat lift at Longtan is reported to be even higher in total with a maximum vertical lift of in two stages when completed.^[5]

Selected lift locks

Notable lift locks — ordered by size

Name	Location	Opened	Type	data-sort-type="number"	Displacement	data-sort-type="number"	Dimensions	data-sort-type="number"	Vertical lift	data-sort-type="number"	Cycle time	Notes
Goupitan ship-lifting system (second^[6] lift)		2021^[7]	Vertical caisson	500 tons	280x	127m (417feet)		Tallest boat lift in the world.
Goupitan ship-lifting system (first lift)	Guizhou, China	2021	Vertical caisson	500 tons		NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet)
Three Gorges Dam ship lift		2016	Vertical caisson	3000 tons	280x	113m (371feet)	30–40 minutes
		1982	Inclined plane	1500 tons	90x	104disp=br0disp=br	90 minutes
	Braine-le-Comte, Hainaut, Belgium	1968	Inclined plane	1350 tons	91x	67.73disp=br0disp=br	22 minutes^[8]
	Le Rœulx, Hainaut, Belgium	2002	Vertical caisson	1350 tons	112x	73.15disp=br0disp=br	7 minutes	Tallest boat lift in Europe.
		1974	Vertical caisson	1350 tons	105.4x	38disp=br0disp=br	3 minutes
		1934	Vertical caisson		85x	36disp=br0disp=br	20 minutes
Niederfinow north boat lift		2022	Vertical caisson	2100 tonnes	115x	36disp=br0disp=br
		1904	Vertical caisson	1300 tons	42.7x	19.8disp=br0disp=br	10 minutes
		1907	Vertical caisson	1300 tons	42.7x	14.9disp=br0disp=br	10 minutes
		1938	Vertical caisson	1000 tons	85x	16disp=br0disp=br	20 minutes
	Falkirk, Scotland, United Kingdom	2002	Rotating caisson	600 tons	21.33x	24disp=br0disp=brs	4 minutes	The only rotating boat lift in the world.
		1962	Vertical caisson	600 tons	67x	14disp=br0disp=br	25 minutes
		1987	Vertical caisson	300 tons
Longtan Dam ship lift (first lift)		2020	Vertical caisson	500 tons	73x	62.4disp=br0disp=br^[9]
Longtan Dam ship lift (second lift)	Hechi, Guangxi Autonomous Region, China	2020	Vertical caisson	500 tons	73x	93.6disp=br0disp=br
		1888–1917	Vertical caisson	360 tons/350 tons	40.1x	16.93-		Three lifts each 16.93 m high plus one 15.4 m high.
		1881–88	Vertical caisson	300 tons	39x	13.13disp=br0disp=br	5 minutes	Replaced by a single lock in 1967.
	Cheshire, England, United Kingdom	1875	Vertical caisson	250 tons	22.9x	15.25disp=br0disp=br
Montech water slope	Montech, Tarn-et-Garonne, France	1974	Water slope		443x	13.3disp=br0disp=br	6 minutes	Oldest water slope.
Fonserannes Water Slope	Hérault, France	1980–83	Water slope		272x	13.6disp=br0disp=br
Big Chute Marine Railway	Ontario, Canada	1917–78	Patent slip		30.4x	18disp=br0disp=br

See also

• List of boat lifts
• Lock (water transport)
• Balance lock
• Canal inclined plane  - another technique for lifting boats.
• Caisson lock: a submerged boat lift.
• Shiplift  - used for raising vessels in shipyards
• Marine railway inclined plane for shipyards
• Water slope
• Saint-Louis-Arzviller boat lift, France – which is actually a canal inclined plane
• Portable boat lift
• Patent slip

Further reading

• Book: Tew, David. Canal Inclines and Lifts. 1984. Sutton Books. 0-86299-031-9.
• Book: Uhlemann, Hans-Joachim. Canal lifts and inclines of the world. English Translation. 2002. Internat. 0-9543181-1-0.

External links

• Web site: page not available: http://home.scarlet.be/~rkial452/Strepy/Strepy.htm--> The lift-locks on the Canal du Centre, at Houdeng and Strépy-Thieu, Belgium. 2005-05-14. 2007-09-14. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070825061754/http://www.ping.be/~pin02722/Strepy.htm. 2007-08-25. Source mentions its own sources
• The International Canal Monuments List
• Three Gorges Dam
• Big Chute, Ontario – in fact an inclined plane
• Twin Ship Elevator Lüneburg – Technical data of the Scharnebeck twin ship lift near Lüneburg, Germany
• Dutch boat lift page

Notes and References

1. Charles Hadfield World Canals: Inland Navigation Past and Present, p. 71,
2. The Canals of Southwest England Charles Hadfield, p. 104,
3. Web site: revolutionaryplayers.org.uk . 1 September 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120402233646/http://www.search.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/engine/resource/exhibition/standard/child.asp?txtKeywords=&lstContext=&lstResourceType=&lstExhibitionType=&chkPurchaseVisible=&txtDateFrom=&txtDateTo=&x1=&y1=&x2=&y2=&scale=&theme=&album=&viewpage=%2Fengine%2Fresource%2Fexhibition%2Fstandard%2Fchild.asp&originator=&page=&records=&direction=&pointer=&text=&resource=3996&exhibition=1109&offset=0 . 2 April 2012 .
4. The Canals of Southwest England Charles Hadfield, p. 109,
5. Web site: Long Tan Hydroelectric Dam. 2007. 2010-05-20.
6. Book: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368819375 . Yaan Hu, Gensheng Zhao, Claus Kunz, Zhonghua Li, Jan Akkermann, Marc Michaux, Fabrice Daly, Jim Stirling, Weili Zheng, Jean-Michel Hiver, Michael Thorogood, Jianfeng An, Xin Wang, Shu Xue, and Chao Guo . Proceedings of PIANC Smart Rivers 2022. Innovations in Shiplift Navigation Concepts . Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering. 2023. 264. 41–42 . 10.1007/978-981-19-6138-0_4 . 978-981-19-6137-3. free.
7. Web site: View of Goupitan hydropower station in Yuqing County, Guizhou - Xinhua | English.news.cn . https://web.archive.org/web/20200705101441/http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-07/03/c_139186162.htm . dead . July 5, 2020 .
8. Web site: The inclined plane of Ronquières . 1 September 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080611115140/http://services-techniques.met.wallonie.be/en/waterways/the_inclined_plane_of_ron/ . 11 June 2008.
9. Book: Chen . Yingying . Hu . Yaan . Li . Zhonghua . Proceedings of PIANC Smart Rivers 2022 . Research on Influence from Ship Navigating in the Intermediate Channel Between Ship Lifts on Hydraulic Characteristics . Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering . 2023 . 264 . Li . Yun . Hu . Yaan . Rigo . Philippe . Lefler . Francisco Esteban . Zhao . Gensheng . en . Singapore . Springer Nature . 599–610 . 10.1007/978-981-19-6138-0_52 . 978-981-19-6138-0. free .