A repair to the lock in Grave should have solved the long waiting times on Sunday evening. But due to a broken sensor in the brand new cylinder, ship traffic has now come to a complete standstill. Rijkswaterstaat is now trying with all its might to get things going again on Monday afternoon.
Lately, waiting times in Grave have risen to an average of about ten hours, with peaks of up to twelve hours. This was mainly because the lock at Weurt, near Nijmegen, is completely out. All ships that want to go from the Maas to the Waal must therefore circumnavigate via Grave.
But that lock doesn’t work properly either. One of the sliders there had a worn hinge. As a result, the locking, the passage of ships, went a lot slower. Not ideal with the peak crowds, so.
Repair
But the replacement cylinder came in faster than expected. And so Rijkswaterstaat planned repair work last Sunday. As a result, the lock would be closed from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
However, the problems are still not solved a day later. On the contrary: a sensor in the new part does not work, which means that Rijkswaterstaat does not consider it responsible to allow ships to pass through. A spokesperson confirms the problems: “We are now in the process of moving the still working sensor from the old cylinder to the new one. Monday afternoon around three o’clock we hope that everything is working again and the lock can be opened.”
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