There are two alternative Canals du Centre, the "Historic" Canal du Centre and the "New" Canal du Centre. The latter was completed in 2002 to fulfil the requirement for Belgium to provide an East- West waterway to allow the passage of vessels up to 1350 tons.
The peaceful, historc, Canal du Centre
The previous (now "Historic") Canal operated from 1919 and its much smaller locks could accommodate boats up to 300 tons. The Canal needed to manage a difference in levels of 96 metres between the two ends, which would have needed 30 locks. Instead the decision was made to build four boat lifts, the first completed in 1888. The lifts, bridges and the canal itself are listed as a World Heritage Site. The boat lifts were designed by the English and are quite astonishing for the times they were built. Basically, there are two tanks each holding 1,000,000litres of water. Each tank sits on a large circular piston which is 17metres high and goes into a similar tube in the ground. The two piston-tubes are linked by a pipe and valve. They are equally balanced. A boat goes into either or both tank, then the ends are sealed. An extra 30cm of water (47tonnes) is let into the top tank. This then sinks and the other tank rises. The same process can be repeated many times and only a small amount of water is released each time.
An old Ascenseur
We found it very difficult to establish whether or not the old Canal was still open. With such uncertainty, and so that we could experience the Strepy- Thieu lift described in another blog, we decided to moor at the end of the old canal and explore it on bike and foot. This turned out to have been a good decision as we found that it is in fact closed after the western boat lift, Thieu, about 3 kilometres into the Canal.
Amazing old technology
There is an excellent cycle path right along the canal and plenty of signs about it. It is a beautiful stretch, lined with trees, with a couple of villages along the way. We came across a market in one of them and bought some excellent fruit. Another interesting group of buildings is the "Cantine des Italiens" built in 1945 to accommodate up to 256 young unmarried Italian men, some of the thousands brought to Belgium as coal miners from 1946 until 1956, when a major accident in one of the coal fields killed 130 Italians and brought a stop to the scheme. Now the Cantinas has been restored as a small museum and bar/ restaurant. We enjoyed a pleasant lunch there with friends who came down from Antwerp for the day (seniors travel anywhere in Belgium for 6euros return).
Showing one of the old "tubs" halfway up, sitting on the giant piston
Best Regards,
Penny and Dave