Saimaa Canal
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The Saimaa Canal (Russian: Сайменский канал; Finnish: Saimaan kanava; Swedish: Saima kanal) connects the lake Saimaa with the Gulf of Finland. The canal, inaugurated in 1856, was built between the cities of Lappeenranta and Viipuri (now Vyborg, Russia), both of them then in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in Russian Empire.
In the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, the Karelian Isthmus and the city of Vyborg were ceded to the Soviet Union, thus effectively splitting the canal in half and ending all traffic.
A treaty in 1963 leased the Russian part of the canal area and the island of Malyj Vysotskij (Ravansaari) to Finland for fifty years. A new deeper canal was constructed by the Finns and it opened to traffic in 1968. The length of the canal itself is 42.9 km.
A system of inland waterways and canals in the 120 interconnected lakes of the south-central and south-east part of Finland are reached through the canal. The length of deep channels in Lake Saimaa (with an authorised draught of 4.2 m) is 814 km. The dimensions of the locks in the canal and waterways is length 85 m, breadth 13.2 m.
Negotiations to extend the lease time beyond 2013 are presently underway between Finland and Russia.
[edit] External links
- Finnish Maritime Administration - Saimaa Canal
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