Severe flooding on the Danube in recent years has revealed the somewhat poor condition of the Marchfeld protection dam and its backwater dams. viadonau is therefore carrying out reconstruction of these dams and making state of the art modifications in order to ensure more reliable protection.
Construction methods
The use of a dam sealing wall will successfully prevent water seepage through the dam in the future. A flexible protective layer protects the dam from breaches caused by the buoyancy of groundwater. The dams can therefore reliably withstand any possible flooding. Nevertheless, the groundwater can, as before, flow freely in the floodplains and wetlands. In addition, wall defence pathways will be created to allow the emergency services to reach the dam easily in cases of flooding.
This design has already been implemented successfully in the reconstruction of the flood protection dam on the river Morava and is also being deployed in the project "Restoration flood protection Danube - Marchfeld, Hainburg, Wolfsthal".
Accompanying measures to protect the environment
The conservation of fragile habitats is considered to be an important integral part of any construction project. Construction plans of individual sections of the Danube are therefore made which give due consideration to the rare amphibians, reptiles, and birds living in the region. The erection of protective barriers make it possible to protect, for example, frogs and toads before construction work begins.
Flood protection dam Morava
- Total length of the flood protection facilities ("reconstruction length"): approx. 80 km
- Construction period: 2006-2013 (remaining work until 2018, monitoring until 2023)
- Construction costs: 123 million euros
- Earth movement mass: 6.5 million tonnes
- Funding: Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT, since 2020 Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology - BMK ), Federal State of Lower Austria and the municipalities
- Protected citizens: 18,000 (ten municipalities)
- Area: along the Morava and lower Thaya
- Height: height of the worst flood in the last hundred years with an additional safety height of at least 70 cm
Flood protection dam Danube
- Projects: Marchfeld flood protection dam, Hainburg, Wolfsthaler dam
- Total length of the flood protection facilities ("reconstruction length"): approx. 67 km
- Planned construction period: 2017-2019 (remaining work until 2022)
- Estimated total cost of project: 95.4 million euros
- Cost of emergency services and clean-up operation during flood event 1.2 million euro (gross)
- Costs of urgent measures taken to repair damage and prioritisation 850,000 euros (gross)
- Funding: Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT, since 2020 BMK - Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology), Federal Republics of Lower Austria and Vienna
- Protected Citizens: 30,000 (twelve municipalities)
