Freycinet gauge

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Péniche on the Saint-Denis Canal

The Freycinet gauge (French: gabarit Freycinet) is a standard governing the dimensions of the locks of some canals, put in place as a result of a law passed during the tenure of Charles de Freycinet as prime minister of France, dating from 5th August 1879. The law required the size of lock chambers to be increased to a length of 39 m, a width 5.2 m and a minimum water depth of 2.2m, allowing 300 to 350 tonne barges to pass through.^[1] Consequently boats and barges such as the péniche built to the Freycinet gauge could not exceed 38.5m in length, 5.05m in breadth and a draught of 1.8m. Bridges and other structures built across the canals are required to provide 3.7m of clearance.^[2] In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many French canals were modernised to conform to the Freycinet standard.

The Freycinet gauge corresponds to the European class I gauge. In France 5,800km of navigable waterways corresponded to the Freycinet gauge in 2001 accounting for 23% of water borne traffic.

[edit] European Classification

European Inland Waterway Boat Classifications
Class	Capacity	Length	Width	Draught
0	Under 300 Tonne	N/A	N/A	N/A
I	300 Tonne (the péniche)	38.5m	5m	2.5m
II	600 Tonne	50m	6.6m	2.5m
III	1000 Tonne	67m	8.2m	2.5m
IV	1350 Tonne	80m	9.5m	2.5m
V	2000 Tonne	95m	11.5m	2.7m
VI	3000 Tonne and over	N/A	N/A	N/A