Total investments amount to € 420.3 million, € 76.8 million of which are earmarked for completing the flood protection programme of the Austrian capital. The relevant measures presented by Christa Kranzl (State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology/bmvit) and Ulli Sima (Vienna City Councillor for the Environment) in mid-May also take account of the more than twenty communities further downstream of Vienna and are attuned to ecological needs. “Thanks to the persistent flood control efforts being undertaken since the 1970s (New Danube flood bypass canal), Vienna was largely spared from the horrendous floods of August 2002,” says Ulli Sima. The flood then reached a flow rate of 10,000 m3/sec, falling only marginally below the threshold value for which the flood protection installations downstream of the Freudenau power plant had been designed.
The suggested improvement measures for the left riverbank therefore include upgrading and elevating the 3.4-km-long enclosure dam (HUL) around the Danube port at Lobau. This project, which was already initiated in winter 2006 and meets highly stringent ecological criteria, shall be concluded by 2008.
The further construction segments downstream of HUL also affect the Donau-Auen National Park and therefore necessitated highly sensitive planning. In agreement with experts from the City of Vienna, internationally acclaimed ecologists, NGO representatives and the National Park administration, it was now initially decided to also upgrade and elevate the Marchfeld protective dam.
Says Sima: “Thanks to the broad consensus reached, flood control and environmental protection measures are now perfectly reconcilable!” The installation of (at least) two additional weirs will, moreover, increase the water flow into the old river arms of the Lower Lobau area.
The right Danube embankment will see ample restorations including the elevation of the Danube Canal backwater dam and the Albern main dam, says Ulli Sima. Roughly € 65 million in funds will flow into this project as well as into accompanying measures.
(Source: aqua press Int. 2/2007)
