Schleuse tired: Moselle shipping after an accident badly impaired!

An accident at the Müden lock led to paralyzing shipping on the Moselle in early December 2024. All stuck ships were freed by emergency locks. On Friday morning, the last freight ship with steel pile walls was made up for an emergency, after a total of 78 smuggings of 72 ships were carried out. Some ships had to be divided into two slips to enable the passage.

The emergency locks were faster than expected, and the workers on the lock are now putting the emergency closures. The accident, in which a cargo ship seriously damaged the lock on December 8, led to a one -week suspension of shipping. According to initial estimates, preparations for the renovation of the lock, including the establishment of the construction site and the drainage of the damaged lock chamber, began.

Details about the lock and the renovation work

A new lock gate is currently being prepared in Trier and is to be installed at the end of January. The planned restart of the lock is planned for February 1, 2025, although the original estimate for the renovation work was sufficient by the end of March 2025. A temporary lock gate made of nine dam bar made of steel was used in the emergency locks, the structure and dismantling of which is required for every slip process.

While the lock is operated 24 hours a day to free as many fixed ships as possible by the end of the year, a total of 74 ships are waiting for the passage above the damaged lock. Five to six ships can probably be locked every day. The waiting ships include passenger ships, tankers and shear associations, many freight ships transport steel products or agricultural products, while 29 ships are unadited. In summary, both N-TV and ZDF reported on the consequences of the accident at the Müden lock and the measures to restore shipping on the Moselle.