Newsletter 13 : “Blue Days”… and a canal is reborn!
Canal to open in 2010 !
Two staff members operate the Daubenton lift-bridge in
Roubaix, at the same time ensuring security. In all, the
canal has 11 moving bridges over its 28 km length. ©LMCU
The Deûle-Scheldt waterway now has its managing authority. On the French side, Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine has resolved on an experimental basis to take on a new area of responsibility, for ‘rivers and canals in the public domain’, covering the canalised river Marque and the Roubaix Canal. The local authority is now legally empowered to open the canal to navigation during the 2010 season. On the Belgian side, the waterway authority remains the same : the Service Public de Wallonie (former MET).
During the two days of the Blue Links closing conference at the Fresnoy centre in Tourcoing (see below), officials were prudent but optimistic in anticipation of this vote by the Lille district assembly. The boaters present on the canal – the first to be concerned by the decision – expressed their interest in seeing the canal open on a permanent basis, to take advantage of the greater density of the cross-border canal network and new possibilities for circular cruises.
The decision was taken by the district assembly on October 2, just two weeks after the Blue Days festivities marking the completion of the canal restoration programme. The councillors debated the issues of enhancing the waterway heritage within the area, and adopted the Roubaix Canal as the first phase of the Metropolitan Blue Plan.
In this context, operation of the canal from Monday 14 to Thursday 24 September allowed 30 boats to assemble at the Union rally site, and served as a full-scale test for the operating staff of LMCU, the Nord département and Voies Navigables de France.
The experiment will be conducted with the assistance of Government departments. LMCU will thus manage the restored Roubaix Canal for three years. It remains to conclude the various agreements, but the objective is to open the canal to recreational navigation during the 2010 season.
A living canal
The submarine Axolotl edges slowly towards its mooring
at the Maison du Canal, Leers-Nord in Belgium, which
was the terminus for the duration of the event. ©TCF
History will record that the first boat to navigate on the Marque, the Roubaix and the Espierres Canal after 25 years of inactivity was… a submarine! On Monday September 14, the Colporteur entered the canal, carrying the submarine Axolotl in its hold. Ironically, the axolotl is an amphibious creature which has the particular characteristic of regenerating damaged parts of its body and organs. A perfect symbol for the restored canal!
Vincent Dujardin, founder of the association Transport Culturel Fluvial, was satisfied by the results of the operation: ‘First of all, we pulled off the technical challenge of navigating through the canal with a barge of maximum dimensions ! The VNF staff were on hand throughout our transit. Secondly, opinions were unanimous : seeing boats back on the canal was an emotional experience for some people, and there was obvious pride and pleasure at seeing the canal alive again. From the user’s viewpoint, the entire route offers an undeniable environmental quality and obvious tourist interest. The landing stages and mooring facilities are well designed and built.’
Boaters’ dreams come true
Axolotl was not alone: 30 boats cruised through the new waterway, like pioneers blazing the trail for when the canal will be permanently opened. They were blessed by gorgeous sunshine and summer temperatures, the atmosphere was relaxed and emotions were high. Didier Lestiennes, captain of Mon Désir, fulfilled his childhood dream of navigating through the canal; Paul Vermaut, captain of D’n Bruinen, remade history by posing with his mussel-boat in the Galon d’Eau pound, to take the same photo as the one he found in archives, from 89 years earlier. Marc, Willy, Joseph, Flo, Jean-Noël, Michael, Andy… all were enchanted by the welcome they received from the communes along the canal, and joyfully set out their tables and chairs on the quayside for a communal apéritif !
Record attendance at Union site
The mainly British passengers of the cruise ship Princess and
Dave Ballinger, the Canadian president of Inland Waterways
International, were present at the unforgettable aquatic show
Throughout the week-end the Union site drew a constant flow of visitors to the quai de Calais. Total attendance is estimated at around 20 000 people over the two days. There were senior citizens, moved to tears, who remembered the canal in days gone by; there were countless children who naturally wanted to take a boat trip on the canal, and the Décidée thus carried 420 passengers during the week-end. The vast majority of visitors were content to lounge on the deck-chairs in the sun, listening to the music, talking with the boaters, visiting the ‘eco-village’ and bio market set up by the Collectif de l’Union, and collecting information on the 20-odd stands. In the evening, the aquatic show attracted thousands of spectators, who were all enchanted by the fascinating interplay of images projected on to a screen of fine drops of water, fountains pulsating to the rhythm of popular classical music (and some more modern hits), lasers and… a final bouquet of fireworks.
The Scheldt ‘mussel-boats’ remake history
Among the 30 boats at Union on Saturday 19 September, two hengsten or mussel-boats magnificently restored by the Ghent-based association Tolerant aroused admiration and curiosity. Both more than 100 years old, they were among the large fleet of flat-bottomed fishing vessels which worked in the Scheldt estuary in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the decline of fishing industry, they were used in oyster- and mussel-farming in the eastern Scheldt estuary. On the photo to the left, taken in the 1920s, one of these boats is seen in front of the ‘Descente des Mariniers’ café at the Wattrelos bridge in Roubaix. These boats came to sell their mussels in Roubaix ! Tolerant succeeded in taking the same photo during the Blue Days event. The demise of the boatmen’s café may be regretted, but it should be noted that throughout the period the canal was in disuse, the ‘As de Cœur’ café continued boldly to serve the same social function, alongside the local anglers’ club on the other side of the bridge.
Unheard of : the bow-haulers run out of chips !
In Belgium, the bow-haulers’ (‘satcheux’) fête also broke their record for visitor numbers. Christine Dubus, respon- sible for events at Estaimpuis, estimates that 6000 people came to Leers-Nord during the week-end : ‘The submarine recorded 840 visits for Sunday alone. The small rafts competition saw no fewer than 48 rafts launched on the canal (compared to 18 in 2008). The candle-lit night walk had never seen as many participants (230), and there were not even enough sweets for all contestants !’ Other figures confirm the success of the event : 560 kg of chips, 250 kg of mussels and 1140 bottles of the ‘Satcheux’ local beer over the week-end, not to mention all the other drinks and sandwiches !
Marcq-en-Barœul organised a picnic for schoolchildren on the riverside lawn in front of the public library at La Corderie. This was on the Friday, and 105 pupils’ minds boggled as they greeted the boats arriving at the site or passing by. The Saint-Vincent autumn fête lived up to its reputation, attracting 6000 visitors on the Sunday. The trip- boat Armentières 2000 transported 300 passengers during the week-end.
Canals - an asset for urban development
The Blue Links conference on inland waterways and urban regeneration attracted about 100 speakers and delegates over the two days, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September, from nine countries on three continents, proving that the issue is of importance and recognised as such at the international level!
Marking completion of the Interreg IIIB project – both the works on the canal itself and the exchanges in the context of the experts group – the conference was held on these dates to coincide with the Blue Days rally and festivities.
Each session began with a round table bringing together the Blue Links partners, before opening the forum to other projects, other owners or promoters of projects to restore and develop canals as assets for urban development.
The partners : evaluation and future prospects
The Blue Links partners naturally expressed their satisfaction on fulfilment of a project which proved to be complex, presenting many technical, social, environmental and legal obstacles. Although some remain to be overcome, the presentations and exchanges were essentially focused on the future of the Deûle-Scheldt waterway. Following abandonment of the project to import the Belgian sediments into France – since the Espierres Canal remains to be dredged – the French authorities declared their intention to assist the Belgian partner in financing the alternative project, for transporting the sediments to a remote site in Belgium, after a costly treatment process. In the same spirit of solidarity among players on the regional waterway network, René Vandierendonck, vice-president of the Regional Council, made an appeal to the Government, the EU’s Interreg secretariat and to all regional players, in favour of the works urgently needed to repair the Vadencourt aqueduct on the Canal de la Sambre à l’Oise. It is obvious that the Deûle-Scheldt Canal will only fulfil its promise if the entire cross-border waterway network is maintained and developed for waterway tourism. The prefect of the Nord-Pas de Calais region felt that the project to restore the canal was in line with one of the strands of the Government’s White Paper on the environment: restoring nature in the city.
The films made on the canal during Blue Days, and the opinions of boaters, amply testify to this essential quality of the Roubaix Canal and the canalised river Marque.
Examples from elsewehere: new ideas, and a worldwide trend encouraging the regional stakeholders
The aqueduct which crosses la river Genesee, in Rochester,
NY, could be rewatered after removal of the road that has
been ‘squatting’ the structure for the last 60 years.
The examples presented to delegates cover a wide variety of contexts, but with a common message which carried all the more force : rivers, canals and water space now need increasing efforts in all large cities as essential factors of quality of life. And when they also vehicles for interpreting the history of the areas they serve, as is the case with heritage canals in Europe, North America and Asia, the movement for their renaissance becomes irresistible !
That was the message from Thomas X. Grasso of Rochester, NY (USA), with the project to restore the former line of the Erie Canal in downtown Rochester, in place of an important street. A first phase – rewatering the aqueduct over the Genesee River – was incorporated this year in the city’s Master Plan.
Rachel Stewart presented a project completed on a much smaller scale, but nonetheless very successful, in the town of Williamsport, on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal close to Washington, DC.
Richard Miller, business development manager of British Waterways (Scotland) presented a range of remarkable projects carried out on and around the canals which cross the city of Glasgow, and Nico van Lamsweerde showed numerous examples of enhancement of the heritage canals in towns of all Provinces of the Netherlands.
Intersection of two canals projected in the centre of the
new town of Cheongna currently under construction to the
north of Incheon, for 90 000 inhabitants.
Professor Gye Woon Choi of Incheon University, Korea, showed how rivers and canals have become an essential focus for spatial development in the country’s four main catchment areas, for all waterway functions : from inland water transport in modern logistics chains to the development of rivers and river banks as spaces for biodiversity and enjoyment of the population. Hence the high-capacity canal (for 250-TEU sea-river container ships) under construc- tion over a length of 18 km between Seoul and the Yellow Sea at Incheon. The new town of Cheongna will also have a network of canals serving environmental functions as well as recreational navigation.
Simulation of the Old Deûle rewatered along the
avenue du Peuple Belge in Lille
The conference came full circle to finish in Lille. Deputy mayor Stanislas Dendievel, technical advisor in town planning, presented the ‘three arms’ of the old river Deûle as projects for regeneration and enhancement of the city’s waterway heritage, neglected for so long. The Canteleu arm including the Bois Blancs basin, the former canal between the Citadel and Vieux Lille, and the old Deûle which runs down the Avenue du Peuple Belge are the components within the city’s limits of the overall ’Plan Bleu’ for the metropolitan area. This latter project is by far the most ambitious, since it involves reexcavating a former arm of the river which was infilled in the 1950s.
There is no doubt that all the projects presented and discussed during these two sessions will be reinforced by belonging to the worldwide network of project authorities, stimulated by Blue Links.
A summary of the proceedings of the conference is available to download.
Speakers during the two days
Partners
– Jean-Michel Bérard, prefect of Nord-Pas de Calais Region
– Henri Brouet, chief engineer/inspector, Service Public de Wallonie (SPW)
– Jean-Pierre Defresne, regional director, Voies Navigables de France (VNF)
– Bernard Despierre, deputy mayor, Tourcoing
– Bernard Gérard, MP, mayor of Marcq-en-Barœul
– Cédric Ghesquières, engineer, Conseil Général du Nord
– Martial Grandmougin, chairman of board, Agence de l’Eau Artois-Picardie
– Yvon Loyaerts, director of mobility and inland waterways (SPW)
– Daniel Senesael, MP, mayor of Estaimpuis
– Slimane Tir, vice-president of Lille Métropole Communauté urbaine in charge of parks and open spaces (ENM)
– René Vandierendonck, mayor of Roubaix, vice-president of regional council in charge of spatial planning and development
Outside contributors
– Prof Gye Woon Choi, Incheon University, South Korea
– Sophie Delpierre, joint technical secretariat, Interreg IV
– Stanislas Dendievel, deputy mayor, Lille
– Thomas X. Grasso, chair, World Canals Conference, Rochester (NY), 2010
– Marie-Laure Kresec, director European projects, Initialité Ingénierie & Territoire
– Nicolaas van Lamsweerde, director, Dutch Recreational Waterways Foundation (SRN)
– Richard Millar, business development manager, British Waterways
– Rachel Stewart, president, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Association
Presenter/moderator
– David Edwards-May, Euromapping
