Ahkiolahti canal
20/08/2026
The Ahkiolahti canal was built by hundreds of men, and due to the years of famine, women and children also worked there. Emergency relief work was paid either in money or grain. Despite the large number of workers, the construction progressed slowly, as the starving workforce was not very efficient. Typhoid fever also spread among the workers. However, the Nerkoo lock canal was eventually completed and inaugurated in 1869. At that time, shipping could travel from Kuopio all the way to Ahkiolahti. There, the cargo was unloaded and transported overland to the shore of Onkivesi, from where the journey continued by steamship to Iisalmi. Between Kuopio and Iisalmi, however, two small steam launches operated, which were able to pass through the old Vianto canal.
The Ahkiolahti canal would have opened a deeper route all the way to the final destination, but its construction was delayed: canal works at Ahkiolahti were halted in 1868 due to lack of funds. Work did not resume until 1872. Even then there were problems, as the upper section of the canal, completed earlier, had collapsed and had to be deepened again.
In 1873–1874 a wooden lock was built in the canal, along with a swing bridge over the lock, which was the first of its kind in Finland. Previously, rolling bridges had been built over canals. When the canal was finally opened to traffic in May 1874, Iisalmi Steamship Traffic Ltd was founded. In 1876 it began operating with two vessels: Axel sailed between Kuopio and Iisalmi, and Iisalmi operated as far as Lübeck.
https://www.kulttuuriymparistomme.fi/fi-FI/Ajankohtaista/Artikkelit/Veden_aarella/Maaningan_kanavat(37447)
