Industrial Heritage Site of the Year 2018
Every year since 1995, the Swedish Industrial Heritage Association has designated the Swedish Industrial Heritage Site of the Year (Årets industriminne). The purpose of the award is to promote industrial heritage and reward long-term and innovative efforts to preserve and interpret facilities or places that tell of industrial society, production, technology and people.
The canal was planned and built 150 years ago due to the needs of efficient railways in the valley and western heat mills in the valley. At that time, international demand for Swedish iron was strong. The canal with locks and aqueduct ties together natural watercourses from Lake Vänern and all the way into Norway. At several locks there are mills, which arose from the wood-based industry, which with the canal's help to replace the iron mills when the mill death hit the region during the late 19th century.
The canal was used for shipping as far back as the 1970s, but freight traffic has gradually been replaced by leisure traffic and therefore the canal has been maintained. Today, a conscious effort is being made to preserve locks and other facilities in the same way as when the canal was once built. Several locks have been restored and in 2018 the aqueduct in Håverud has been completed. The work is carried out with the support of expertise built up in both national and international collaboration.
Håverud, where waterways, railways and highways meet in a dramatic landscape, has become a symbol of Swedish road and water construction art. The rushing water has also been used as a power source for the industry that the canal served, and the site shows how people strived to master nature through technological advances. The canal stretches in Håverud and Upperud are building memories and the canal as a whole is of national interest.
The Swedish Industrial Heritage Association (SIM) was founded in 1989 and is a non-profit organization within the cultural environment area. The association works for the cultural heritage of industrial society in Sweden and represents Sweden within the international organization The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH). The association brings together individuals and organizations.
Contacts The Swedish Industrial Heritage Association:
Catarina Karlsson
President SIM
070 567 74 58
catarina.karlsson@jernkontoret.se
Mia Geijer
Board member SIM
070-363 59 89
mia.geijer@gmail.com
Contact person for Dalslands Kanal AB:
Johan Trollnäs, CEO
johan.trollnas@dalslandskanal.se