The Ronquières Inclined Plane is a canal inclined plane on the Brussels-Charleroi Canal in the province of Hainaut in Wallonia, Belgium. It opened in April 1968[1] having taken six years to build. It is in the municipality of Braine-le-Comte and takes its name from the nearby village of Ronquières.
The plane was built to reduce the delays imposed by the 14 locks (already reduced from 16 in the 19th century) that had hitherto been needed for the canal to follow the local topography.
The Ronquières Inclined Plane is 1432m (4,698feet) long and lifts boats vertically through 67.73m (222.21feet).[2] It consists of two large caissons mounted on rails. Each caisson measures 91m (299feet) long by 12m (39feet) wide and has a water depth between 3mand3.7mm (10feetand12.1feetm). It can carry one boat of 1,350 tonnes or many smaller boats within the same limits.
Each caisson has a 5,200-tonne counterweight running in the trough below the rails, which permits the caisson to be moved independently of the other.[2] Each caisson is pulled by eight cables wound by capstans at the top end of the inclined plane. Each cable is 1480m (4,860feet) long. Each caisson can be moved between the two canal levels at a speed of 1.2m/s, taking about 22 minutes. It takes 50 minutes in total to pass through the 1800m (5,900feet) of the entire structure, including the raised canal bridge at the top end.