Guided Tour Ship

elevators and high speed trains

Submitted by: Madalina Cristina Savulescu, Erasmus Student
Coordinator: Mr. Philippe Dejonckere

On 16th of December, Mr. Philippe Dejonckere organized a trip for us to

see the ship elevator Strpy-Thieu boat lift which lies on a branch of the
Canal du Centre in the municipality of Le Rulx, Hainaut, Belgium.
We left in the morning at 9 oclock from Vives University by bus. First
we arrived at a sugar company which we didnt visit but the teacher told us
some things about the company and how it works.
Then we went to see the boat lift. I was very happy because it was
something really new for me. We were very lucky to arrive on time and
actually see few boats there.
The structure at Strpy-Thieu consists of two independent
counterweighted caissons which travel vertically between the upstream and
downstream sections. The caissons have useful dimensions of 112 m by 12
m and a water depth of between 3.35 and 4.15 m. Each caisson is supported
by 112 suspension cables (for counterbalance) and 32 control cables (for
lifting/lowering), each of 85 mm diameter.

The structure is massively reinforced to provide rigidity against

torsional forces during operation and has a mass of approximately 200,000
tones. The vertically moving watertight gates are designed to withstand a 5
km/h impact from a 2000 tones vessel.

After that we went to see the high speed trains. We stopped near a
bridge and hurried to see the trains. We saw Thalys which is an international
high speed train. Its speed was amazingthe average speed is around
280km/h. The train passed under the bridge and it was extremely fast. In few
seconds it was gone!

Later, we went in Nivelles where we stopped at a shopping center to

eat and to have some free time.

Finally, we went back to Kortrijk. This trip was very interesting, we had
a lot of fun and the weather was quite good. I am really happy that we had
the opportunity to spend some time together and to discover Belgium more.