Channel of the Haute-Saône

The channel of the Haute-Saône , still called Canal of Montbeliard to the Haute-Saône is an inland waterway which begins in north from the department from the Doubs, crosses the south-western part of the Territoire of Belfort and whose section, unfinished, is located in the part is Haute-Saône.

The length of the part carried out is of 23km and it includes/understands:

History

It is after the loss of the Alsace in 1871 that the government of the Third Republic decided the construction of channels in the East of France to allow the movement of the goods between the area of Nancy and those of Burgundy and Franche-Comté. One of the first building sites related to the realization of the Canal of the East which began towards 1875 and completed in 1887, then that of the channel of the Haute-Saône which was to connect the part remained French of the Canal of the Rhone to the Rhine with the Canal of the East. The goal was also to serve the collieries of Ronchamp and to make it possible to evacuate produced coal.

In 1881 the project is mainly defined and receives the approval of the Administration. The first blows of pickaxes are given in 1882 but the difficulties encountered during the boring of the tunnels of Châlonvillars and that of Chérimont, the enormous volume of cuts, which had with the major trenches and the important embankments, made that the initial budget proved underestimated. Sufficient additional appropriations being long in coming, the building site trailed in length and completion could not take place before the end of the First World War which returned Alsace and its inland waterways to France. The utility of the channel being established, the whole of the project was called in question and only section (12,5 km) connecting the Canal of the Rhone to the Rhine with the port of Botans was completed and put out of water in 1926. This port, managed by the Chamber of commerce and of Industry, was useful until in the years 1970 like coal wharf for Belfort. Currently, only of rare pleasure boats still use it but its banks are a place of walk appreciated by the inhabitants of the urban surface Belfort - Montbeliard: it is the Green Coulée of the channel which allows the hikers and cyclists to go Essert to Montbeliard (Park of the Near-the-Rose).

The Bassin of Champagney initially constituted water reserve (13 million m ³) for the regulation of the level of water in the channel. Currently, it constitutes a very appreciated lake of the fishermen and local bathers.

Way

One can distinguish three parts: the project, the part partially carried out between Ronchamp and Botans and the section brought into service of Botans at Fesches-le-Châtel.

The project

The goal was to connect the Canal of the Rhone to the Rhine with the the Saone. Two options were considered:
  • Fesches-le-Châtel with Conflandey (Haute-Saône) by Ronchamp and Luxeuil
  • Fesches-le-Châtel with Chemilly (Haute-Saône) by Ronchamp and Vesoul
The second option was retained. From the channeled Saone with Ronchamp, the channel was to cross the principal following localities:

De Ronchamp with Botans

  • Ronchamp district of Eboulet, project of port for the collieries, locks
  • Champagney hamlet of the Ban of Champagney and basin-tank, tunnel of Chérimont.
  • Frahier Port of Frahier, bridge channel on the road of Floor-Low and that of Evette-Salbert
  • Châlonvillars tunnel of the Forest , lock and house of lockkeeper
  • Essert tubular bridge, road bridge in the center of the village
  • Bavilliers locks and road bridges
  • Froideval metallic bridge of the railway
  • Botans port

De Botans with Fesches-le-Châtel

External bonds

  • Dictionary of the rivers and channels in the Babel Project: The channel of Montbeliard to the high Saone

  • Green Casting

  • the site of Peter Greuter

See too

  • the Basin of Champagney and the Channel of the Saone by Pierre Klinger - Editor: Pascal Magnin 2003

Photographs

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