Everything about White Sea Canal totally explained
The
White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal (
Russian:
Belomorsko-Baltiyskiy Kanal;
BBK), is a
ship canal that joins the
White Sea and the
Baltic Sea near
St. Petersburg. Its original name was (until 1961)
Belomorsko-Baltiyskiy Kanal imeni Stalina ("
Stalin White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal"), and it's known under the abbreviation
Belomorkanal. During its construction, according to official data 10,933 people died (although various estimates have placed the figure at significantly higher). The canal was opened on
August 2,
1933.
The canal runs partially along several rivers and two lakes,
Lake Onega and
Lake Vygozero. The total length of the route is 227 km (141 miles). Its economic advantages at present are limited by its depth, between ten and twelve feet deep, making it useless to most sea-going vessels. Today it only gets light traffic, between 10 and 40 boats a day.
Waterway
Total waterway length is 227 km, 48 of which are artificial portions.
Canal current direction is set from Lake Onega to the White sea, and all
navigation signs are set according to it.
Canal route
Canal begins near
Povenets settlement in Povenets bay of
Lake Onega. Right after Povenets there are seven locks close to each other, comprising 'stairs of Povenets'. These locks are the southern slope of the canal. Canal summit pound of 22 km long is between 7th and 8th locks. The northern slope have 12 locks, 8th - 19th. The route of the northern slope runs along 5 large lakes:
Lake Matkozero (between 8th and 9th locks),
Lake Vygozero (between 9th and 10th locks),
Lake Palagorka (between 10th and 11th locks),
Lake Voitskoye (between 11th and 12th locks),
Lake Matkozhnya (between 13th and 14th locks). The canal empties out into the
Soroka Bay of the White Sea in
Belomorsk. The following settlements are located along the canal:
Povenets,
Segezha,
Nadvoitsy,
Sosnovets, Belomorsk.
Sailing conditions
Navigable channel is 4 m deep, 36 m wide, radius of curvature is 500m. Locks' dimensions: 135 m long, 14.3 m wide. Speed limit in all artificial portions is 8 km/h. In case of low visibility (less that 1 km ) navigation is stopped.
Typical navigation season length is 165 days.
Canal use
The cargo tonnage peaked in 1985 with 7.3 million tons transiting the canal. It remained high during next five years, and then declined. Early in the 21th century amounts began to rise gradually, but they're still low comparing to peak volumes, for example 283,400 tons in 2001, 314,600 tons in 2002.
The availability of the canal allows to ship heavy or bulky items from Russia's industrial centers to the White Sea, and then on sea-going vessels to Siberia's northern ports. For example, in the summer of 2007, a large piece of equipment for
Rosneft's
Siberian
Vankor Oil Field was delivered by the
Amur-1516 from
Dzerzhinsk on the
Oka River via the
Volga-Baltic Waterway and the White Sea Canal to
Arkhangelsk, and from there by the ocean-going
Kapitan Danilkin to
Dudinka on the
Yenisei.
The canal is also a promising river cruises route.
Oil product shipping
The canal can be used for shipping oil products from oil refineries on the
Volga to the consumers in
Murmansk Oblast or overseas. Russia's
Volgotanker, which owns a fleet of suitably sized
petroleum tankers and
ore-bulk-oil carriers, pioneered this route in August 1970, when
Nefterudovoz-3 delivered a cargo of
fuel oil to the White Sea port of
Kandalaksha.
After many years' interruption, Volgotanker resumed using this route in 2003. The company plans was to carry
800,000 (metric) tons of fuel oil over the canal in 2003, and to increase the volume to 1,500,000 tons next year. The fuel was
to be transferred from Volgotanker river tankers to
Latvian seagoing tankers at a floating transfer station near the
Osinki Island in the
Onega Bay, 36 km north-east of the port of
Onega.
Transfer operations started on June 24, 2003. But already on September 1 a low-speed collision between Volgotanker's
Nefterudovoz-57M and Latvian
Zoja-I during such a transfer caused a crack the
Nefterudovoz's hull, with a subsequent
oil spill. Various estimates of the extent of the spill have been made, the final one being 45 tons, of which only 9 tons have been collected. Volgotanker's alleged failure to contain the spill or to timely cooperate with the competent authorities resulted in
the
Arkhangelsk Oblast authorities shutting down the oil transfer operations, after only 220,000 tons have been exported. The company was fined and didn't get a permit for similar operations in the following year..
Organization and management
The workforce for the Canal was supplied by the
Belbaltlag camp directorate (White Sea Baltic Corrective Labor Camp Directorate,
WSBC) of the
OGPU GULAG.
