The Sloping Lock of Ronquieres

The Ronquieres Inclined Plane is a Belgian canal willing aircraft at the Brussels-Charleroi Canal inside the province of Hainaut in Wallonia that opened in April 1968 after a six-yr creation period. It is positioned inside the municipality of Braine-le-Comte, and takes its call from the close by village of Ronquières. The purpose of the development changed into to lessen the delays imposed by the 14 locks which had hitherto been wished for the canal to comply with the neighborhood topography.

The Ronquières Inclined Plane has a length of 1,432 metres and lifts boats via sixty seven.Seventy three metres vertically. It includes massive caissons hooked up on rails. Each caisson measures 91 metres lengthy by using 12 metres wide and has a water depth among 3 and three.70 metres. It can deliver one boat of one,350 tonnes or many smaller boats inside the identical limits. Each caisson has a five,2 hundred-tonne counterweight walking within the trough beneath the rails, which lets in the caisson to be moved independently of the alternative.