Draining a 4 km section of canal: how we widened the Juliana Canal
How do you deepen and widen a canal to ensure that the route will remain navigable, even for tomorrow's bigger vessels? The answer: drain a length of the canal and deploy 200 people and 120 machines to widen the bottom of the fairway.
Thanks to this unique technology, the canal has now been made navigable for vessels up to 190 m in length, with a width of 11,4 m and a draft of 3,5 m. That is necessary as commercial vessels are becoming increasingly larger and heavier.
Key shipping route
The Juliana Canal is a significant shipping route from ports in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. 25.000 vessels per year use the canal. Most vessels that sail to Belgium over the Meuse go through the Juliana Canal.
Draining 1.883.125.000 litres of water
So, it is important to keep this route available for shipping, going forward. In this respect, it was essential to widen and deepen the fairway. To protect the personnel involved in the project, we decided to completely drain a 4 km-long section of the canal.
To get all the water out of the canal, we first installed a temporary dam at Berg aan de Maas, before draining the water off via the lock at Born.
This was a gradual process: we opted for this course to exclude the risk of flooding for the surrounding area and to ensure there was no damage to the quayside and bridges. This way, we drained a total of 1.883.125000 litres of water.
Widening and deepening the canal
During the draining operation, the fish in the canal obviously had to go somewhere else. So, we caught them and released them in the other part of the fairway.
Once the canal was completely drained, the work could begin. Around 200 people in tippers, cranes, bulldozers and loaders began the work of widening and deepening the canal.
A special works road was even constructed for these activities: it was 4,5 km long and 9 m wide. The purpose of this road was to reinforce the swampy ground around the canal, giving machinery problem-free access to the area.
Refilling the canal
Once the work was complete, we installed a new canal bed. First with bentonite mats, then a layer of gravel and a layer of rubble masonry.
Next, we filled the drained section in stages, with around 2 bn litres of water. We did this carefully, so that the rubble on the bed of the canal would not be displaced.
At the temporary dam, we built a pumping system to return the large volume of water to the canal. The process of filling took 5 days. Once the canal had been filled, we dismantled the temporary dam to reconnect the widened section to the rest of the canal.
The result: the Juliana Canal is now navigable for vessels up to 190 m long, 11,4 m wide and with a maximum draft of 3,5 m. A significant upgrade for the Meuse route, and for the accessibility of the Province of Limburg by water.