Barrage view Wintrich/Minheim

Here at “Staustufenblick”, you can watch the ships pass the lock at Wintrich/Minheim. A locking normally takes 35 minutes. Some of the large inland ships carry around 4000 tons of freight, which is about as much as 260 truckloads. The hydroelectric power plant installed on the right bank of the Moselle produces 90 million kilowatt hours of eco-friendly electricity, energy for 24000 households.

The Moselle rises at Col de Bussang in the French Vosges, 735 metres above sea level. Since her enlargement to a major shipping lane from 1958 - 1964, the Moselle connects the Saar River and the French canals with the Rhine River, which the Moselle enters after a journey of 520 kilometres at Koblenz (60 metres above sea level).
River training is limited to a 270 km long shipping lane with 13 barrages - each equipped with an upper and lower harbour, a weir and a lock. Apart from that, new hydroelectric power plants were built alongside the new barrages in the Moselle sections in Germany and Luxembourg.