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Boat lift

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Machine to move boats vertically between waterways

This article is about machines transporting boats between different bodies of water. For shipyard device to replace a dry dock, or Boat Lifts for pleasure craft storage, seeShip lift. For other uses, seeBoat lift (disambiguation).

Strépy-Thieu boat lift (Belgium,Wallonia)

Aboat lift,ship lift, orlift lock is a machine for transporting boats between water at two different elevations, and is an alternative to thecanal lock.

It may be vertically moving, like theAnderton boat lift inEngland, rotational, like theFalkirk Wheel inScotland, or operate on aninclined plane, like theRonquières inclined plane inBelgium.

History

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A precursor to the canal boat lift, able to move full-sized canal boats, was thetub boat lift used in mining, able to raise and lower the 2.5 tontub boats then in use. An experimental system was in use on theChurprinz mining canal inHalsbrücke nearDresden. It lifted boats 7 m (23 ft) using a moveable hoist rather thancaissons. The lift operated between 1789 and 1868,^[1] and for a period of time after its opening engineerJames Green reporting that five had been built between 1796 and 1830. He credited the invention toDr James Anderson of Edinburgh.^[2]

The idea of a boat lift for canals can be traced back to a design based on balanced water-filled caissons inErasmus Darwin's Commonplace Book (pp. 58–59) dated 1777–1778^[3]

In 1796 an experimentalbalance lock was designed byJames Fussell and constructed at Mells on theDorset and Somerset Canal, though this project was never completed.^[2] A similar design was used for lifts on thetub boat section of theGrand Western Canal entered into operation in 1835 becoming the first non-experimental boat lifts in Britain^[4] and pre-dating theAnderton Boat Lift by 40 years.

In 1904 thePeterborough Lift Lock designed byRichard Birdsall Rogers opened in Canada. This 19.8-metre (65 ft) high lift system is operated by gravity alone, with the upper bay of the two bay system loaded with an additional 30 cm (12 in) of water as to give it greater weight.

Before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam Ship Lift, the highest boat lift, with a 73.15-metre (240.0 ft) height difference and European Class IV (1350 tonne) capacity, was theStrépy-Thieu boat lift in Belgium opened in 2002.

The ship lift at theThree Gorges Dam, completed in January 2016, is 113 m (371 ft) high and able to lift vessels of up to 3,000 tons displacement.

The boat lift atLongtan is reported to be even higher, with a maximum vertical lift of 179 m (587 ft) at the second level when completed.^[5]

Selected lift locks

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**Notable lift locks — ordered by size**
Name	Location	Opened	Type	Displacement	Dimensions	Vertical lift	Cycle time	Notes
Goupitan ship-lifting system (second^[6] lift)	Guizhou,China	2021^[7]	Vertical caisson	500 tons	280 by 35 by 5 metres 919 by 115 by 16 feet	127 metres 417 feet		Tallest boat lift in the world.
Goupitan ship-lifting system (first^[6] lift)	Guizhou,China	2021^[7]	Vertical caisson	500 tons		72–79 metres 236–259 feet
Three Gorges Dam ship lift	Yichang,Hubei,China	2016	Vertical caisson	3000 tons	280 by 35 by 5 metres 919 by 115 by 16 feet	113 metres 371 feet	30–40 minutes
Krasnoyarsk Dam ship lift	Divnogorsk,Krasnoyarsk Krai,Russia	1982	Inclined plane	1500 tons	90 m × 18 m × 2.2 m 295 ft × 59 ft × 7 ft	104 m 341 ft	90 minutes
Ronquières inclined plane lift	Braine-le-Comte,Hainaut,Belgium	1968	Inclined plane	1350 tons	91 m × 12 m × 3.7 m 299 ft × 39 ft × 12 ft	67.73 m 222 ft	22 minutes^[8]
Strépy-Thieu boat lift	Le Rœulx,Hainaut,Belgium	2002	Vertical caisson	1350 tons	112 m × 12 m × 3.35 m 367 ft × 39 ft × 11 ft	73.15 m 240 ft	7 minutes	Tallest boat lift in Europe.
Scharnebeck twin ship lift	Lüneburg,Lower Saxony,Germany	1974	Vertical caisson	1350 tons	105.4 m × 15.8 m × 3.4 m 346 ft × 52 ft × 11 ft	38 m 125 ft	3 minutes
Niederfinow boat lift	Brandenburg,Germany	1934	Vertical caisson		85 m × 12 m × 2.5 m 279 ft × 39 ft × 8 ft	36 m 118 ft	20 minutes
Niederfinow north boat lift	Brandenburg,Germany	2022	Vertical caisson	2100 tonnes	115 m × 12.5 m × 4.0 m 377 ft × 41 ft × 13 ft	36 m 118 ft
Peterborough lift lock	Ontario,Canada	1904	Vertical caisson	1300 tons	42.7 m × 10.1 m × 2.1 m 140 ft × 33 ft × 7 ft	19.8 m 65 ft	10 minutes
Kirkfield Lift Lock	Ontario,Canada	1907	Vertical caisson	1300 tons	42.7 m × 10.1 m × 2.1 m 140 ft × 33 ft × 7 ft	14.9 m 49 ft	10 minutes
Rothensee boat lift	Saxony-Anhalt,Germany	1938	Vertical caisson	1000 tons	85 m × 12.2 m 279 ft × 40 ft	16 m 52 ft	20 minutes
Falkirk Wheel	Falkirk,Scotland,United Kingdom	2002	Rotatingcaisson	600 tons	21.33 m × 6 m × 1.37 m 70 ft × 20 ft × 4 ft	24 m 79 fts	4 minutes	The only rotating boat lift in the world.
Henrichenburg boat lift	North Rhine-Westphalia,Germany	1962	Vertical caisson	600 tons	67 m × 8.2 m × 2 m 220 ft × 27 ft × 7 ft	14 m 46 ft	25 minutes
Geheyan Dam ship lift	Hubei,China	1987	Vertical caisson	300 tons
Longtan Dam ship lift (first lift)	Hechi,Guangxi Autonomous Region,China	2020	Vertical caisson	500 tons	73.0 m × 12.2 m × 3.5 m 240 ft × 40 ft × 11 ft	62.4 m 205 ft^[9]
Longtan Dam ship lift (second lift)	Hechi,Guangxi Autonomous Region,China	2020	Vertical caisson	500 tons	73.0 m × 12.2 m × 3.5 m 240 ft × 40 ft × 11 ft	93.6 m 307 ft^[9]
Canal du Centre boat lifts	Hainaut,Belgium	1888–1917	Vertical caisson	360 tons/350 tons	40.1 m × 5.06 m × 2 m 132 ft × 17 ft × 7 ft	16.93–15.4 m 56–51 ft		Three lifts each 16.93 m high plus one 15.4 m high.
Fontinettes boat lift	Arques,Pas-de-Calais,France	1881–88	Vertical caisson	300 tons	39 m × 5.2 m × 2 m 128 ft × 17 ft × 7 ft	13.13 m 43 ft	5 minutes	Replaced by a single lock in 1967.
Anderton boat lift	Cheshire,England,United Kingdom	1875	Vertical caisson	250 tons	22.9 m × 4.7 m × 2.9 m 75 ft × 15 ft × 10 ft	15.25 m 50 ft
Montech water slope	Montech,Tarn-et-Garonne,France	1974	Water slope		443 m × 13.3 m × 6 m 1,453 ft × 44 ft × 20 ft	13.3 m 44 ft	6 minutes	Oldest water slope.
Fonserannes Water Slope	Hérault,France	1980–83	Water slope		272 m × 13.6 m 892 ft × 45 ft	13.6 m 45 ft
Big Chute Marine Railway	Ontario,Canada	1917–78	Patent slip		30.4 m × 18 m × 7.9 m 100 ft × 59 ft × 26 ft	18 m 59 ft

References

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^Charles HadfieldWorld Canals: Inland Navigation Past and Present, p. 71,ISBN 0-7153-8555-0
^^a ^bThe Canals of Southwest EnglandCharles Hadfield, p. 104,ISBN 0-7153-8645-X
^"revolutionaryplayers.org.uk". Archived fromthe original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved1 September 2016.
^The Canals of Southwest EnglandCharles Hadfield, p. 109,ISBN 0-7153-8645-X
^"Longtan 500 ton ship lift starts construction". 16 February 2015. Archived fromthe original on 21 October 2025. Retrieved21 October 2025.
^^a ^bHu, Yaan; Zhao, Gensheng; Kunz, Claus; Li, Zhonghua; Akkermann, Jan; Michaux, Marc; Daly, Fabrice; Stirling, Jim; Zheng, Weili; Hiver, Jean-Michel; Thorogood, Michael; An, Jianfeng; Wang, Xin; Xue, Shu; Guo, Chao (2023)."Innovations in Shiplift Navigation Concepts"(PDF).Proceedings of PIANC Smart Rivers 2022. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering. Vol. 264. pp. 41–42.doi:10.1007/978-981-19-6138-0_4.ISBN 978-981-19-6137-3. Archived fromthe original on 20 October 2025.
^^a ^b"View of Goupitan hydropower station in Yuqing County, Guizhou - Xinhua | English.news.cn". Archived fromthe original on July 5, 2020.
^"The inclined plane of Ronquières". Archived fromthe original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved1 September 2016.
^^a ^bChen, Yingying; Hu, Yaan; Li, Zhonghua (2023). "Research on Influence from Ship Navigating in the Intermediate Channel Between Ship Lifts on Hydraulic Characteristics". In Li, Yun; Hu, Yaan; Rigo, Philippe; Lefler, Francisco Esteban; Zhao, Gensheng (eds.).Proceedings of PIANC Smart Rivers 2022(PDF). Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering. Vol. 264. Singapore: Springer Nature. pp. 599–610.doi:10.1007/978-981-19-6138-0_52.ISBN 978-981-19-6138-0. Archived fromthe original on 20 October 2025.