Satisfy your curiosity and find out what this strange structure was used for in the Fonseranes 9 Locks!
The Fonseranes 9 Locks water slope provided a short-cut for freight ships so they could bypass the many basins here. It was also used for barges that were too big to get through the 9 Locks basins. The Parisian engineer Jean Aubert was responsible for the two slopes built in France, at Montech (Tarn-et-Garonne) in 1974, and Béziers, here at Fonseranes in 1983.
How did it work?
To climb the slope of the Fonseranes hill, the boat entered a water-filled channel at a slight angle. An elevated machine was positioned above it, closing off the channel with a watertight shield. This lift then moved the wedge of water and pushed the boat up to the upstream level.
To descend, the principle was the same, except that the shield held back the wedge of water for the time it took to descend to the downstream level. The machine took just 6 minutes to raise or lower a boat, compared with 45 minutes using the Riquet locks.
What is its history?
There have been many setbacks and setbacks between the 1970s project and its completion and operation.
In 1973, the world’s first water slope was successfully inaugurated at Montech on the Canal de Garonne.
A second water slope, with improved technology, was then planned at the Fonseranes site to bypass the staircase of locks. Inaugurated in 1983, it was never really used under optimum conditions, due to the technical complexity of its self-propelled unit. As a result, the originally planned function of generating energy when the boats lowered the locks, in order to sell electricity to EDF, never materialised.
A few months after its inauguration, in 1984, there was an accident, caused by a loss of grip; the machine was moving uncontrollably and at too high a speed on the slope.
In 1987, following improvements, the machine was put into service for the second time, 5 days a week.
Despite this, the essential maintenance required numerous periods of downtime, and these periods out of service increased over time, so much so that many people in Béziers have retained the memory of a “machine that never worked”!
During this decade, commercial traffic was already in sharp decline, and ceased in 1989.
In 1990, the water slope was switched to an “on-demand” service for pleasure boaters. After a final use in 1999, the water slope closed for good two years later.
Despite its complicated history, this water staircase has retained its place in Fonseranes, as part of the technological and historical heritage of Béziers. It can still be seen on the site today, an eternal curiosity for visitors to the 9 locks!
