Accident on the Maas will be a costly affair

As long as the weir in Grave is not repaired, vessels must make a major detour. The "Marie Valentine", loaded with 2,000 tons of benzene, allided with a pillar of the Thompson Bridge between Grave and Nederasselt and the weir Grave. The weir sliding swept the wheelhouse and railings of the tanker away. Devastation on deck was huge. The skipper, a 52-year-old man from Slovakia, was arrested and a blood sample was taken. Shipping between Grave and Sambeek and the Maas-Waal Canal was obstructed for an unknown time. Depending on their size, vessels must pass through Brabant and Belgium. The loss of time can be up to 48 hours. Per day between 75 and 100 freighters are sailing on the Maas river which is, after the Waal, the most navigable river in the Netherlands. The Maas is mainly used for transport of gravel, sand and animal feed. Until at least next week, the ships still have to circumnavigate, so the costs will add up quickly. Vessels up to 700 tons can use the canal system in Brabant, through Roermond and Helmond west. The larger ships must make a much bigger detour via Maastricht and Hasselt to Antwerp. From there they can sail to Rotterdam. Ships bound to Germany have to sail on the Waal. Experts inspected the exact damage to the dam and found six gates damaged, so that water ran through the builiding. Two gates will have to be replaced. Rijkswaterstaat was looking at measures to prevent further deflation of the reservoir between Grave and Sambeek. The weir in Heumen was closed. At 9 a.m. on Dec 30 the water level on the Maas above the Grave weir hat dropped more than two meters with a depth of 5,93 meters. The Thompson Bridge was released for traffic in the afternoon. A diving team inspected the tanker in order to determine whether or not it could be towed away without being lightered. On Dec 31 special equipment was expected on site to measure the capacity of the dam. Only then Rijkswaterstaat expects to be able to say more about the duration of the recovery period.