Canal lift & Incline Plain in Belgium 2003

The usual method of overcoming altitude changes on a navigable river or canal is by one or more locks. When the change in height is so great as to make a locks impracticable and boat lift or an incline plane are two of the options used. This video shows both types in action. The Strépy-Thieu boat lift lies on a branch of the Canal du Centre in the municipality of Le Rœulx, Hainaut, Belgium. With a height difference of 73.15 metres (240.0 ft) between the upstream and downstream reaches, it was the tallest boat lift in the world, and remained so until the Three Gorges dam boat lift in China was completed in January 2016. The Ronquières Inclined Plane is a Belgian canal inclined plane on the Brussels-Charleroi Canal in the province of Hainaut. It has a length of 1,432 metres (4,698 ft) and lifts boats through 67.73 metres (222.2 ft)[2] vertically. It consists of two large caissons mounted on rails. Each caisson measures 91 metres (299 ft) long by 12 metres (39 ft) wide and has a water depth between 3 and 3.70 metres (9.8 and 12.1 ft). It can carry a boat up to 1,350 tonnes or smaller boats within the same limits. Each caisson can be moved between the two canal levels at a speed of 1.2 metres per second (3.9 ft/s), taking about 22 minutes. It takes 50 minutes in total to pass through the 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) of the entire structure, including the raised canal bridge at the top end.