Kiel Canal Kiel Canal The Kiel Canal (, literally "North-[to]-Baltic Sea canal", formerly known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal) is a long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, but later widened, and links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula. This not only saves time but also avoids storm-prone seas and having to pass through the Sound or Belts. Besides its two sea entrances, the Kiel Canal is linked, at Oldenbüttel, to the navigable River
North Sea Canal 1957 the Delft Hydraulics Laboratory began research for the best solution. The result was two jettties with 500 m difference in length between the southern and the northern one. The length of the north pier should be 1500 m to 2500 m and the south jetty of about 3000 m. This is to prevent the silting of the entrance channel and to ensure that vessels entering suffer less from the prevailing south-west and north-south flow along the coast. There are four locks, of various sizes at the North Sea mouth of the canal: When the north canal lock was opened