Żerań Port

The construction of the Żerań Canal with Żerań Port started in 1919. Work was stopped in 1920 and had not been resumed until World War II. In 1948 the building of the port was back on the drawing board. The inland navigation port was opened in 1963. It lies on the Żerań Canal, which joins Zegrzyński Lake with the Vistula. Żerań Port and its surroundings take up 260 ha. It is located in Białołęka, near the Żerań Heat and Electricity Power Station, at the exit of the Żerań Canal to the Vistula. It had equipment to ensure safe berthing and servicing of vessels. The wet dock had a reloading quay, which at one time reloaded gravel and sand extracted from the Narew River. From 1972 it was mainly here that gravel, sand and other aggregate for the Faelbet Prefabricate Works nearby was reloaded; the works no longer exist. The Tadeusz Tillinger lock chamber is an important water element in the port. It was built in 1959 and at the time was the most modern lock in the world. The dimensions of the lock chamber are: height 85 m, width 12 m and length 104 m. After the dam was built in Dębe, currently the Żerań Canal is Vistula’s only water connection with Bug and Narew rivers. The lock levels out the several kilometre long difference in water levels between the rivers, which enables the easy sail of vessels from the Zegrzyński Lake to the Vistula, and the other way around. Żerań Port was also a wintering harbour. Reloading activity in the port ceased in 1989.

Currently, the headquarters of the Regional Water Management Board in Warsaw and Przedsiębiorstwo Budownictwa Wodnego S.A. are near the lock.