Lanaye Lock
The construction work on the 4th Lanaye lock, which is 225 m long and 25 m wide, started in June 2011 and finished in June 2015. At the Lanaye lock site, there are also three other locks which were built in the 1960s: one 136 x 16-metre lock and two 55 x 7.5-metre lock (which are no longer in service).
Next to the new lock is a pumping station which was built to compensate for the average consumption of the locks on the site during the low-water period. A hydroelectric power plant has been associated with this so that renewable electricity can be produced when the flow of the river Meuse permits.
Other features were created to integrate the lock into its setting in an environmentally friendly manner :
- An area was created to encourage certain species to breed
- A wall was built to protect the emergence of wild orchids
- An orchard was planted
- Footpaths and cycle paths were created
- A missing link of the Ravel was completed
Straddling Belgium and the Netherlands, the Lanaye lock complex is a strategic navigational intersection of major importance: it is an essential link that allows boats to gain access the Dutch stretch of the river Meuse and the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and also to all the Rhine and Danube basins leading to Germany.
Key dates
2011
Start of civil engineering works
2012
Start of electromechanical works
2015
Commissioning of new lock and pumping station / hydroelectric power plant
