Rothensee boat lift

The Rothensee boat lift is North of Magdeburg and connects the Mittellandkanal with the Elbe via the Elbeabstiegskanal.

The Rothensee lift is about 500m from the junction of the Elbeabstiegcanal and the MittellandKanal lowering boats to the level of the Elbe.

As part of a German re-unification transport project the Elbe aqueduct was completed after a 60 year delay, however two shaft locks were built instead of the proposed Hohenwarthe lift.

The floats provide buoyant lift equivalent to 5,400 tonnes, enough to balance the weight of the trough and its load of water and ship.

The trough is set in motion using four worm geared shafts, 27.3 metres long and 42 centimetres in diameter moved by eight 44 kW electric motors.

Today 110 million m³ of water are back pumped for the parallel ship lock each year.

The overall height of the lift measured from the base of the underground float chambers to the upper cross beams is 97.21 metres.