If you followed my series of the lift locks of the Centre Canal, you will have read that the 4 lift locks aren't used anymore for commercial shipping. Well, that is because they have been replaced with one lift lock. That is right, one that replaces 4!
Wait a minute, one lift lock had a rise of more than 15 meters, so this one has to lift boats to more than 60 meters rise? That's right, it has a rise of 73,15 meters (240 feet) to be exact; it's huge... Just take a look at the next photo: the little dots on the left are cars...
It just dwarfs the houses of the neighborhood.
As part of a modernization project of the centre canal, plans where made for an upgrade of the 4 lift locks in 1960. However, it turned out that the cost of such an upgrade would be sky rocketing so plans shifted quickly to one lift lock replacing the 4 (+1 conventional lock.) Works commenced in 1982, but due to financial problems and problems of stability of the foundation would not end until 2002. By then the budget had quadrupled to € 625 M...
The lift lock of Strépy-Thieux is 102 meter high and 135 meter long. Until the opening of the Three Gorges dam boat lift in China was completed in January 2016 it was the highest lift lock in the world.
One can visit the building where you can see the enormous motors and have a nice view of the surroundings...