The tender for the new construction of the Otterndorf lock at the connection between the Elbe and the Hadelner Canal has been issued Europe-wide. This means that the renovation project is finally entering the realisation phase, with construction due to start this year. However, according to the Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defence and Nature Conservation Agency (NLWKN), the old lock will still be functional in the 2018 season.
The current lock was built in 1854 and modernised in 1957 and 1985. It will be demolished and completely replaced. According to the NLWKN, the total construction time is four years and access to the Elbe-Weser shipping route, to which the Hadelner Canal belongs, will be closed for three years. Boats and yachts travelling from the Elbe to the Weser and vice versa will then have to do without the protected and significantly shorter route - the only remaining option is the arduous route "around" via the North Sea.
According to the NLWKN, the new construction was necessary because the old lock was resting on a wooden pile foundation "which cannot cope with the dimensions of the dyke required today and in the coming years, both in terms of the length of the embankments and the height".
The Elbe-Weser shipping route, which is almost 55 kilometres long, has not been used for commercial shipping for several years. The picturesque waters between Otterndorf and Bremerhaven are now only used by pleasure craft with a draught of up to 1.50 metres (sailing yachts with masts down). Additional moorings for pleasure craft are also to be created in the course of the new construction.
