The Lulsund canal

Connects Luleå town with the fjords Granöfjärden, Brändöfjärden and Persöfjärden north of Lule River.

Views of scenic Lulsund canal right in the centre of Luleå.

It's hard to believe that steamers could pass through Alstersundet!

History:
When Luleå town had been relocated to it's present location most people from the villagies in the north came by boat through the Lulsund when on business to the town. However land elevation made it more and more difficult to get through and in 1847 a first clearing out was made and the sound now got a minimum width of 8 feet. Most people did not find this enough. They wanted a canal and regular traffic with a steamer.
This people offered help in many ways to get the work done. But nothing happened until 1872. During that summer the whole canal was deepened and widened and with new stones by the sides. It was 800 ell long, 6 ell wide and 3,5 feet deept.

When this was done Luleå town started to build a road from the town centre to Skurholmsfjärden were a new bridge for steamers was built. In 1875 a steamer was ordered from Oskarshamns Mekaniska Verkstad and this ship was named Alstersund.
During 1875 the canal was dug wider to 20 feet and Alstersund and Reveln were deepened to give the new steamer a chance to come through.
The steamer Alstersund was built 45 centimeters deep and specially made for this route. But it was only occassionally it managed to pass through Alstersundet. This was not satisfactory for the people in this area that had helped out in creating the fairway in many ways. The best way to solve the problem would be to build a lock in Alstersundet, but that was an expensive project.
So they sold the steamer and ordered a new one instead. Alstersund was 45 centimeters deep, the new boat, called Svanen, only 37 centimeters! Svanen was ready for traffic in 1893 and it succeeded to get through ALstersundet, which pleased the people in the area.
But the income from the route was not high enough to maintain the steamer and arond 1900 traffic stopped.
The people in the area was dissapointed as they wanted a "real" steamer and a real canal. In 1901 they were granted 25 000 SEK from the government, but they could find no one wiling to canalise Alstersundet for that sum.
In 1907 the goverment once again granted a sum of money for the canal. But this time the government wanted the local people to warrant the sum. But not enough people was willing to help with this. This was the final end of the dream of a canal in Alstersundet.

Source: Yngve Rollof, Sveriges Inre Vattenvägar, part 2, 1978.
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