Lock (water Transport) - Use of Locks in River Navigations

Use of Locks in River Navigations

When a stretch of river is made navigable a lock is required to bypass an obstruction such as a rapid, dam, or mill weir — because of the change in river level across the obstacle.

In large scale river navigation improvements, weirs and locks are used together. A weir will increase the depth of a shallow stretch, and the required lock will either be built in a gap in the weir, or at the downstream end of an artificial cut which bypasses the weir and perhaps a shallow stretch of river below it. A river improved by these means is often called a Waterway or River Navigation (see example Calder and Hebble Navigation).

The lowest lock on a navigable river separates the tidal and non-tidal stretches. Sometimes a river is made entirely non-tidal by constructing a sea lock directly into the estuary.

In more advanced river navigations, more locks are required.

  • Where a longer cut bypasses a circuitous stretch of river, the upstream end of the cut will often be protected by a flood lock.
  • The longer the cut, the greater the difference in river level between start and end of the cut, so that a very long cut will need additional locks along its length. At this point, the cut is, in effect, a canal.

Read more about this topic:  Lock (water Transport)

Famous quotes containing the words locks and/or river:

    He’s made a harp of her breast-bane,
    Whose sound wad melt a heart of stane.

    He’s ta’en three locks o’ her yellow hair,
    And wi’ them strung his harp sae rare.
    Unknown. Binnorie; or, The Two Sisters (l. 41–44)

    Our trouble is that we drink too much tea. I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats.
    —J.B. (John Boynton)