Svea canal
Svea canal is a dream about a canal connecting the Baltic Sea to Kattegatt via lake Mälaren, lake Hjälmaren and lake Vänern.
King Gustav Vasa discusses the issue with parliament in 1526. King Erik XIV and king Karl IX did have plans, but it was king Gustaf II Adolf that started the works by building Hjälmare canal in 1629. This is the canal that connects lake Hjälaren to lake Mälaren. He also started surveys for the continued canal to lake Vänern in the 1630ies. Further investigations were made in the 1670ies, but nothing more than investigations were made.
During the 18th century nothing seems to have been done about Svea canal. But during the 1840ies, when both Trollhätte canal and Göta canal had been built, the business house Broms in Örebro asked lieutenant colonel J. Edström to survey the possibilities to build Svea canal. Edström found that it would be fairly easy to build this canal and that it would be economically justifiable. This brougth the project to parliament, but no decisions were taken.
During the second half of the 19th century the building of railroads were the latest fashion and most canal plans had to wait.
During the first years of the 20th century some attempts were made to get the project going. In 1909 the royal canal commission investigated Svea canal and found that it was not economical to build a canal for seagoing ships this way. In spite of that the parliament in 1916 decided that a new investigation should be made. This investigation also found it would not be economically motivated with a canal like this.
The idea about Svea canal is still alive in spite of all setbacks. It is discussed and proposed in different forum from timne to time.
In 1999 the members of the parliament Helena Bergholtz and Kenth Skårvik proposed an investigation for a new Svea Canal.
They said that 95% of Swedish import and export goes on ships and that most European countries have made vast investments in canals during the last decades. Shipping is an environment friendly way of transportation making it of great importance both for the environment and the economy.
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