To operate the locks on this river, the lock keeper is called up by using VHF radio. The lock keepers sit in a high control tower with full view of the lock. Entry and exit is controlled by the use of traffic lights. As the locks are so large they are very gentle. Unusually for French locks they are not numbered and referred to by their names only.
The Moselle is a modern waterway, canalised to European Class V standard (for 1500-tonne barges and 3000-tonne push-tows) over a distance of 152km in France from Neuves-Maisons near Nancy to the border with Luxembourg and Germany at Apach. The total length of the waterway to the confluence with the Rhine at Coblence is 394km.
The following information is from frenchwaterways.com
The Moselle is a modern waterway, canalised to European Class V standard (for 1500-tonne barges and 3000-tonne push-tows) over a distance of 152km in France from Neuves-Maisons near Nancy to the border with Luxembourg and Germany at Apach. The total length of the waterway to the confluence with the Rhine at Coblence is 394km.
The following information is from frenchwaterways.com
Locks – There are 16 locks between Neuves-Maisons and the German border. The first 10 to be built, from Apach up to Custines, have chambers 176 by 12m, with a sill depth of 3.50m. From Frouard upstream the locks were built slightly larger (185 by 12m, with a sill depth of 4m). The locks are electrically-operated and controlled by lights. Boat locks, 18.00 by 3.50m, were built at Apach and Kœnigsmacker, but these are no longer in use. At Talange and Metz-Nord there is a second lock, 40.50 by 6.00m, which is generally to be used by pleasure traffic. The locks on the Canal de Jouy à Metz are no longer operated, and this canal is only accessible from upstream for exceptional movements of residential barges.
History – The Becquey plan in 1830 provided for the Moselle to be canalised over its whole length in France. Works were conducted from Nancy towards Metz, where the Canal de Jouy à Metz had already been built. The 1870-71 war stopped any further development, since Metz was thereafter in Germany. The existing locks were enlarged to the Freycinet gauge in the late 19th century. After the return of Lorraine to France, the Canal des Mines de Fer de la Moselle was built to the Freycinet gauge (40.50 by 6?m), but with extra width allowing for later enlargement. This canal was completed in 1932. In the meantime, the Moselle remained barely navigable through Luxemburg and Germany. When European construction began in the 1950s, canalisation of the whole river from Coblence to Metz, to 3m depth, was approved by the three riparian states in 1956, and works were completed in 1964. Locks were designed to receive two 1350-tonne barges (170x12m), and under pressure from France were extended by 6m to accommodate push-tows of two barges. The large-scale waterway was subsequently extended upstream, Nancy-Frouard being reached in 1972 (with locks 175 by 12m) and Neuves-Maisons in 1979 (locks 180 by 12m). This extension meant closing sections of the Canal de la Marne au Rhin and the Canal de l’Est, southern branch (now the Canal des Vosges). The available draught was increased to 2.80m in 2000.
Please click on the following links for pictures of the locks:
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