REGINA-K

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Last ship before Christmas passed Müden lock

The Dutch flagged "Helena Geertje", a freighter loaded with wheat, was last ship before Christmas was brought through the broken lock in Müden on the afternoon of Dec 23. The team has the day off on Dec 24. This is only possible because the emergency locks are going faster than expected. They will resume work on Dec 27. The necessary manual operations have now been well-rehearsed, and the speed of raising the individual dam beams has been increased. As a result, everything is going faster than expected, with the employees working with full commitment. A dozen ships passed alone on Dec 21, although there were a few fewer on Dec 22. Three or four ship crews did not want to go through the lock on the 4th Advent for religious reasons. It was now their turn at the start of the week. The new lock gate is to be installed from Jan 25, 2025. The lock is to go back into regular operation on Feb 1. This is much earlier than initally expected: Experts had previously assumed that the renovation work on the lock could last until the end of March 2025.

26 trapped ships freed

The Mosel river will remain closed to cargo shipping in Jan 2025, despite the success of a temporary lock helping to free vessels trapped on the river after an accident, navigation authorities said on Dec 19. The temporary lock will not permit a reduced level of cargo shipping to operate on the river while repairs to a damaged lock start in the new year. A resumption of normal shipping along the Mosel could be possible in early February. Repairs are likely to last until spring 2025. A temporary lock opened on Dec 16has been more successful than expected and 26 of the trapped vessels have now been freed. Around nine trapped ships are expected to be freed each day against initial expectations of five to six vessels daily, with all vessels expected to leave by the end of December. But the Mosel will be closed to shipping when the last trapped vessels leave and the temporary lock will not permit a reduced level of cargo shipping to operate while repairs to the damaged lock are carried out, starting in January.

Emergency locking progressing faster than expected

The 'Regina K' has left the waters Moselle lock near Müden on Dec 13 en route to Keulen with an ETA as of Dec 30. Meanwhile the emergency locking of the stuck ships was progressing faster than originally expected. According to the Waterways and Shipping Authority (WSA), eight ships were able to pass through towards the Rhine within the first 24 hours, including 135-meter-long large motor freight ships, passenger ships, a pushed convoy and smaller ships. As of Dec 18, 17 ships had passed the lock. The aim is for all 74 stuck ships to have passed through the lock by the end of the year. In order to achieve this goal, the authority was trying to improve the processes even further. For example, on Dec 17, welded steel dam beams were used for the first time. They form a temporary closure of the lock chamber. However, the procedure involves a lot of effort: During each lock operation, divers have to connect the steel chains underwater with eyelets. In parallel, the work on the replacement gate and plans to repair the damages were also progressing. Reports with photos and video: https://www.sr.de/sr/notschleusung_mosel_schifffahrt_schleusenunfall_100.html https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/schiffsunfall-mosel-not-schleusungen-mueden-schiffs-stau-frachter-hotelschiffe-ausflugsschiffe-100.html