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Ronchamp Tourisme - Vivez les Vosges du Sud

Champagney dam

PRESENTATION

Champagney Lake

 

Surface: 107 hectares (1,07 Km2)

Maximum volume of water: 13 million m3 of water

Length of the dam: 785m

Height: 41m

Perimeter: approximately 7kms

 

The dam-reservoir at Champagney was built to feed the Canal from Montbéliard to Haûte-Saône. It is the main structure on the canal. After the war of 1870-71, when Alsace and Lorraine were lost to Germany, the waterways which were of considerable economic interest at the time were no longer completely accessible (Rhine - Rhone Canal Rhine – Marne canal). It was decided that the Eastern Canal should be built to connect these two canals. It was built in record time (1875-1887), a Montbéliard-Nancy link was added that also served the coal field in Ronchamp.

The Montbéliard - Haûte-Saône canal project was approved in 1882. The 85 km-long canal was to connect the Rhone canal to the Rhine (at Fesches-le-Chatel) to the Saône (at Conflandey). The canal watershed reach between Châlonvillars (Haute-Saône) and the exit of the tunnel at Chérimont to the Southeast of Ronchamp (Haute-Saône) over about 10 km. At this height (374,75 m), there is no waterway with a high enough flow rate to feed the canal all year round. Only a torrent: the Rahin, coming off the Vosges mountains is capable of bringing a certain volume of water.

The solution was a reservoir that was created by blocking the higher part of the Seruillot stream valley, which could receive and hold a volume of water estimated at 11 000 000 cubic meters. A channel 3 km 500 in length and of a section which can take a 7000 litre / second flow rate feeds the dam from the water intake situated on the Rahin at Plancher-Bas. The definitive project for the dam was drawn up in 1881. It was approved by a minister on January 27th, 1882.

The same year, the work began and it continued until 1905. However there were problems, in particular with the watertightness of the dam. Other major work had to be carried out which meant that the reservoir was first filled in 1938: 56 years after work began! Meanwhile, the work on the water link between Montbéliard and the Haute-Saône had been stopped, and only the section ending at the Port of Botans (close to Belfort), from the Rhône-Rhine canal, was put into service in 1932.

A feeder channel from Bavilliers on the Haute-Saône canal up to the watershed reach of the Rhône-Rhine canal was built between 1937 and 1949. It currently allows water from the Dam at Champagney to feed the Rhône-Rhine canal.

Communauté de communes Rahin et Chérimont
Offices de Tourisme de France
Offices de Tourisme de France
Massif des Vosges
Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges
Ronchamp Tourisme
25 rue Le Corbusier
70250 RONCHAMP