Work on the damaged Müden lock on the Moselle continues on schedule. After the emergency lockages were completed almost a week ago, the lock was emptied, said Ulrich Zwinge of the Waterways and Shipping Office (WSA) Moselle-Saar-Lahn. Scaffolding is being installed in the airlock so that damaged parts of the concrete can be repaired.
Assembling the scaffolding will take a few days, Zwinge said. Then the damaged concrete areas will first need to be removed using high pressure water jets. Higher temperatures will then be necessary for the application and hardening of the new concrete: the scaffolding will therefore be closed to the outside by a tarpaulin. Radiators will also be installed.
The Müden lock was seriously damaged during the collision of a cargo ship on December 8, 2024. Since then, navigation on the Moselle has been paralyzed. Until December 27, complex emergency lockages were carried out for more than 70 ships immobilized since the accident, so that they could leave the Moselle in the direction of the Rhine.
A new lock gate is to be loaded onto a ship on January 17 from a shipyard in Trier and transported to Müden, Zwinge said. Installation of the new door is planned from January 25. After tests, the lock should be returned to normal service on February 1.
This is much earlier than expected: experts had initially assumed that repair work on the lock could last until the end of March 2025. This had sparked strong criticism from companies that depend on the route international navigable river that is the Moselle.
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