Strepy Thieu boat lift

The Strepy-Thieu boat elevate 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 between the upstream and downstream reaches, it became the tallest boat raise in the world upon its crowning glory, and remained so till the Three Gorges Dam ship lift in China turned into finished in January 2016.

The boat lift turned into designed in the course of the Canal du Centre's modernisation software with a view to replace a gadget of locks and 4 16-metre lifts dating from 1888 to 1919. The canal itself began operations in 1879 and its locks and lifts have been capable of accommodate vessels of as much as 300 tonnes. By the 1960s, this became not ok for the brand new European preferred of 1350 tonnes for barge traffic, and a replacement was sought. Construction of the lift began in 1982 and become now not completed till 2002 at an estimated value of €160 million, but as soon as operational, approved river visitors of as much as the new 1350-tonne standard to bypass between the waterways of the Meuse and Scheldt rivers.