BAW-Colloquium on the maintenance of lock installations

On 19 and 20 November, the BAW (Federal office for hydraulic engineering) organized a colloquium on the highly topical theme of "Preservation of water locks". Due to the age structure and the associated condition of the locks in Germany, extensive construction measures will be necessary at a number of installations in the coming years. In the various lectures, the participants gained insights into the current state of research as well as into ongoing projects.

Dipl.-Ing. Mirka Zimmer, KREBS+KIEFER Ingenieure Karlsruhe, presented the "Experiences with the recalculation of five lock systems according to TbW (Technical management)".

As part of the condition assessment of the five priority locks on the Main: Erlabrunn, Harrbach, Steinbach, Rothenfels and Freudenberg, there was also recalculated the internal stability of the existing lock piers. This was done on the basis of the BAW bulletin on "Evaluation of the bearing capacity of existing massive hydraulic structures (TbW)". Using the Erlabrunn lock as an example, the procedure was described and conclusions were drawn. It turned out that in particular the recalculation of the unreinforced components in the niche area represents a major challenge.

The fully booked colloquium enabled a lively exchange of technical information following the presentations.