The World Canals Conference reverted to an on-site event in June 2024 after an on-line version in 2023. The event was based in Bydgoszcz in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland, where the Rivers Brda and Wisła (Vistula) meet, along with the old and new Bydgoszcz Canals.
Inland waterways can play a pivotal role in the EU’s efforts to decarbonise the transport system, according to the Council of the European Union. In December 2022, the Council voted to approve the conclusions of the NAIADES III report on ‘Ongoing development of inland waterways transport’.
IWI is a member go the ‘Think Climate’ coalition under the auspices of PIANC (The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure), working on a far-reaching initiative Navigating a Changing Climate.
A milestone in development of the European waterway network for 3000-tonne barges and push-tows was marked on Tuesday 4 October when the 36m-high Niederfinow shiplift was officially opened, on the Havel-Oder Canal.
The first vessel to pass through the new lift, with its striking architecture, was the Waterway Authority’s icebreaker Frankfurt. Barges and tankers up to 115m long can now transport cargoes between the Polish port of Szceczin and Berlin and beyond.
When we visited the site in May 2022, before attending the World Canals Conference in Leipzig, we saw that even a single-barge Polish push-tow had to split to pass through the original lift, opened in 1933, with its usable length of only 83.50m.
Inland Waterways International has constantly supported Europe’s new canal, the 107-km ‘missing link’ for high-capacity barges and push-tows between the Seine basin and the main interconnected network from Northern France through the Rhine to Switzerland and through the German waterways to the rest of Europe. The French Government insists that the project will go ahead, with works starting in 2017, but the main stakeholders in
American adventurer Charles Hedrich recently completed an extraordinary voyage, rowing throughout the French waterway system. Between late May and the end of October 2016, he covered 3000 km of canals and river navigations, passing through more than 500 locks. The experienced oarsman was constantly amazed by the natural beauty of the landscapes and the fascinating engineered heritage of the waterways. He described the system as
The Canal and River Trust (UK) has published the final results of the Interreg IV B programme conducted by six partners across Europe. See earlier post about a key visit made by the partners to the pilot sites in the UK. The £3.3 million EU-funded project concluded that the future of our inland waterways is closely bound up with digital technology. The project, led by
More than 20 years after planning started, the enlarged Panama Canal has finally been opened to international shipping, two years behind schedule. A detailed feature published in the New York Times on June 22, 2016, suggests that the difficulties encountered in performing the monumental works contract could leave a legacy of heavy maintenance and repair costs. The Malta-flagged ship Baroque enters the lowest of the
We are very sad to inform members that our recently retired treasurer, co-founder Mike Reid, died on Thursday 19th May at his home in West Sussex. Although he had been ill for several years, the news came as a shock for IWI Council and many of our earlier members who knew him since the earliest tours organised by founder Ron Oakley. Mike died peacefully, surrounded
Canals have always been tools of geopolitics as well as the economy in the Middle East. They played a major role in the submerged cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canope in Egypt, more than 2500 years ago. In the European Waterways Map and Directory (5th edition), I mention the Eurasian Canal that could serve exports from Kazakhstan and neighbouring countries, bypassing the new Volga-Don Canal that
We are unequivocally supporting the efforts by the association Unser Finowkanal to secure the future of this important heritage waterway, bypassed by the modern Havel-Oder Waterway. The Federal Government has declared its intention to close the canal for navigation, convert the locks into weirs and maintain the channel exclusively for drainage. The only way to avoid this scenario is to secure funding for the considerable
Waterway managers from throughout Europe travelled across the English Channel a few weeks ago for a special visit to see cutting edge technology in action on the UK’s canals. The guests joined the Canal & River Trust – the charity that takes care of 3200 km of waterways across England and Wales – for two days. The visit included a trip to see the project
Inland waterways are now frequently being discussed as an issue under the overall theme of water and water resources. This is confirmed at the upcoming 7th World Water Forum, to take place in Daegu, Korea, April 12-17, 2015. On April 16, 2015 a PIANC Side Event is scheduled on ‘Water Infrastructure for Sustainable Transport and Economic Development’. The flyer containing the programme of this event
Sonia Rolt – known to many on the canals simply and affectionately as ‘Sonia’ – died peacefully in hospital on 22 October, after a short illness at the age of 95. Her death has meant the passing of the last of the Idle Women who was still actively involved with the canals. In her 96th year, Sonia attended the Hay Literary Festival in May, where
Czech president Milos Zeman will be at the European Parliament building in Strasbourg on 26 February 2014, to lobby for inclusion of the Danube-Oder-Elbe water corridors in Europe’s ‘core corridor network’ for transport infrastructure investments. Ostrava-based MEP Vojtech Mynar has invited interested parties to a round table with experts on the Danube-Oder-Elbe Water Corridor in the ‘Swan Bar’ gallery of the European Parliament building at 16:00.
A sense of urgency permeates the air in Lombardy as well as in neighbouring Piedmont, Emilia Romagna and Veneto regions, regarding Italy’s network of navigable canals and rivers. What reality will be revealed to the world of inland waterway specialists and advocates, meeting in Milan on September 1st for the 27th World Canals Conference? It is a reality of water conveyors and waterways, in places