ELEGANT LADY
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Die letzten Häfen
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First gate wing of damaged lock installed with a delay
A large crane was used to install the first of the 45-ton two gate wings in the lock chamber of Aldegund on Oct 28. It was finally installed on the late afternoon by the employees of the Waterways and Shipping Authority. They had intended to install both gate wings which had been unloaded on Oct 27 from a ship, which had arrived from Aschaffenburg via the Main, Rhine, and Moselle rivers. Only on site did the experts from the Waterways and Shipping Authority notice a design flaw. The company that manufactured the gate wings apparently supplied bolts of the wrong size, which didn't fit the gate. Therefore, these bolts had to be adjusted at the Waterways and Shipping Authority's maintenance depot in Koblenz, thus disrupting the schedule. The plan was now to finish by Nov 2. Originally, it was planned that the lock could reopen as early as Oct 31. The lock cannot be used during the construction work. So far, there have been no traffic jams. Many vessels took advantage of the weekend to pass through the lock. More traffic was expected from Nov 2 onwards, when the lock has reopened. The replacement gate was originally supposed to arrive in Sankt Aldegund in September. However, the complicated construction process was delayed. The old lock gate, which had been damaged by the 'Elegant Lady', had held up for a long time. For four months, up to 20 cargo ships passed through every day – without any problems. Report with photos: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/trier/neue-schleusentore-in-sankt-aldegund-werden-eingebaut-100.html
Damaged lock gate returned to normal emergency operations
The St. Aldegund Moselle lock, which was damaged in the allision of the 'Elegant Lady' on July 2, has now returned to normal emergency operations. Locking operations were taking place upstream and downstream, but only during daylight hours between approximately 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., coordinated by the Mosel-Saar-Lahn Waterways and Shipping Authority (WSA). The damaged gate is inspected once a week by divers. There are also multiple survey checks. A crisis team will decide at the beginning of next week whether emergency locking operations can continue until the new gate is installed. The new lock gate is expected to be delivered at the end of September from a manufacturer in Aschaffenburg. It is expected to be installed at the start of October within four to five days. The allision caused approximately €2.5 million in damage. The damaged gate was reinforced and repaired, and the lock has been operating in emergency mode ever since. For safety reasons, passenger ships continued to be locked only without their catering crew and guests. Ffor pleasure craft, there is a collective lock passage in both directions once a day. The reason why the lock only operates during daylight hours is that the gate is bent and protrudes slightly into the chamber, which is difficult to see in the dark.
More than 40 ships passed damaged lock at the weekend
By the evening of July 6, more than 40 ships had passed dwonstream through the Moselle lock in Saint Aldegund, which was damaged by the 'Elegant Lady'. Locking the ships upstream, however, is more complicated, as there is higher water pressure on the damaged gate. If all goes according to plan, the waiting ships will begin locking towards Trier on the afternoon of July 8. Although some ships had already set off toward Saint Aldegund on the afternoo of July 7, they will not be locked earlier. The order of priority will be determined by when the vessels entered the Moselle. This will be precisely recorded. Several shorter vessels have been selected to be the first to pass through the lock on July 8. Only if everything goes smoothly will the lock be opened. The lock process can generally be carried out as normal, but each passage takes significantly longer than usual because the damaged gate has to be inspected after each passage. Report with photos: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/rheinlandpfalz/swr-auf-der-mosel-warten-noch-schiffe-auf-notschleusungen-100.html
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