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Isn’t that how all locks work? Or at least most? I’ve always assumed the energy cost to pump the water would make it cost prohibitive, but I wonder how it comp
by pacificmint 3y ago
Isn’t that how all locks work? Or at least most?
I’ve always assumed the energy cost to pump the water would make it cost prohibitive, but I wonder how it compares to rerouting ships or moving containers over land.
- perihelions 3y agoSome canal locks pump water back, - "The hydraulic cylinders enable the water used by the locks to be pumped back. Up to 48,000 cubic metres of water are displaced in a single lockage operation. In periods of low discharge on the Meuse, the screws can pump back the water lost due to the passage of a ship through the lock to the upper canal reach." https://www.inlandnavigation.eu/power-of-water-and-wind/ https://www.inlandnavigation.eu/power-of-water-and-wind/
- jorisboris 3y agoIn Belgium on the Albert Canal (a big canal for Belgium but nothing compared to Panama Canal) they started installing pomps 15 years ago for the exact same reason.
- paranoidrobot 3y agoAlso relevant: Gatun Lake that these locks are fed from/part of is freshwater. This makes recovering water from the locks problematic, since you can't feed it seawater.
- jorisboris 3y agoThis looks to me as the correct problem indeed. Inevitably you'll start pumping up salt water eventually.
- bluejekyll 3y agoOk, I’m no civil engineer, but couldn’t you design a siphon system that would only require opening and closing valves to capture the water without any pumping?
- aidenn0 3y agoNo; at some point you're going to lift the water up. That requires pumping.
- elif 3y agoWhy is that? Britain is covered with a preindustrial canal network with thousands of locks which use nothing but channels doors and gravity. Literally made of wood and operated by hand. Raising water on the low side to the level on the high side simply requires joining the two sides together. If sea level is their high side, I don't understand why they can't use this supply forever.
- bombcar 3y agoThe sea level is the low side. The lake is the high side - which works great until the supply of lake water dries up. The obvious solution is a sea-level tunnel a hundred miles long. Probably cheap. ;)
- ianburrell 3y agoThere has been proposed canal in Nicaragua. It would be 170 miles long and have locks to reach Lake Nicaragua. Chinese company got concession to build decade ago, but didn't do anything and then went out of business.
- elif 3y agoi dunno about tunnel... i am not a digger but I don't think digging 26 meters (highest point of canal) would require tunneling... just dredging.
- aidenn0 3y agoYou'd have to deal with the Chagres (assuming the current drought ends) as well. The original excavation was done mostly dry and massive by any standards: 27kt of dynamite were used. I'm also not a digger, but 26 meters of dredging over a 13km distance sounds crazy expensive. You would have to also widen the valley to prevent landslides into the canal.
- donor20 3y agoYou can cross fill and use separate storage - their new locks already use this - but my understanding (possibly wrong) was old locks may not have been using all possible options - it’s a cost / benefit trade off