Ahsen Lock

Exit of a ship from the large lock
Location of the lock group on the canal

The Ahsen locks belong to the fifth of the six canal stages of the Wesel-Datteln Canal (WDK) at canal kilometre 55.9 in Datteln-Ahsen.

The lock group overcomes a height difference of 7.50 meters.

The large lock is 222 meters long, 12 meters wide and has lifting gates at both ends.

It was built between 1925 and 1927 and officially put into operation in 1931 with the Wesel-Datteln Canal.

The lifting gates were renewed in the 1990s, as were the case with the other large locks on the canal.

The small lock was built in 1970, is 112 meters long and 11.83 meters wide. It has a lifting gate on the upstream and a sliding gate on the downstream.

Both locks are operated by the lock keepers in the control stations on site. The pumping station is operated by the remote control centre (FZW) of the Duisburg-Meiderich Waterways and Shipping Office in Datteln, which was put into operation in 1984.

The return pumping station, which has been in place since the canal was put into operation in 1931, is initially used to pump the lock service water that has run into the downstream water back into the upstream. In addition, Rhine water can be pumped via the entire WDK pumping station chain in the direction of the Dattelner Meer if necessary to feed the Herne/Datteln-Münster crest of the West German sewer network. A maximum of three of the four pumps are operated with a throughput of 4300 liters per second, and the geodetic head is 9.60 meters.

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