The maintenance of the international Danube waterway is carried out by making optimal use of resources with the greatest possible degree of efficiency and effectiveness regarding the implementation of maintenance works and taking into account the prevailing conditions (e.g. limited market capacity in hydraulic engineering or budgetary guidelines as laid down by the federal government).
viadonau has adopted a proactive approach in its efforts to ensure the provision of internationally specified fairway parameters on the Austrian section of the Danube. The objective is to ensure that the shallowest sections of the river are maintained and in good condition prior to the onset of the annual low water period in autumn. For both ecological and bedload management reasons (degradation of the riverbed), all dredged material is returned to the river, being either dumped in the river, used for structuring the riverbanks or for landfill on islands. Maintenance dredging doesn't only take place in the fairway but also beyond its limits, including approaches to ports, landing stages (e.g. also in backwaters), the approach to locks and waiting areas for vessels.
All such measures are carried out in close coordination with the other relevant organisations responsible for the maintenance of waterway infrastructure on the Austrian Danube. These include the Verbund Hydro Power GmbH, the public Danube ports and the City of Vienna (MA 45 - Water Management Authority) .
Maintenance measures also need to be taken, when necessary, on the hydraulic structures used for low water regulation. These include groynes, training walls and bottom sills. The planning and implementation of maintenance measures is conducted in close coordination with the teams from the Integrated River Engineering Project and Environment / Ecology at viadonau.
Secondary infrastructure
Aside from the maintenance and renovation of hydraulic structures such as groynes and training walls, viadonau is also responsible for the maintenance and, where appropriate, restoration of the secondary infrastructures of the waterways Danube, Danube Canal, Traun, Enns and March. These include revetments, public transhipment and mooring sites, quay walls, or bollards that are owned by the state.
Naufahrten
Based on the internal "Guideline Naufahrt", the fairway of the total Austrian Danube is surveyed on a monthly basis by viadonau using measurement vessels equipped with sonar in order to determine areas with insufficient fairway depths. Current fairway depths at the relevant shallow areas can be found on the DoRIS site.
From the needs of route maintenance and water supervision, the Naufahrt also serves to inspect the state of the bank and water structures on the water side, such as doping structures or embankments of flood protection dams.
Water / weir supervision
Water and weir supervision are just two of the sovereign functions that viadonau carries out in accordance with the provisions of the Waterways Act.
Coordinating with the supreme water rights authority, the federal states of Upper and Lower Austria and the energy supplier VERBUND Hydro Power GmbH, viadonau is entrusted with the task of monitoring and inspecting the retaining dams of the Danube power plants, along with all installations (including pumping stations, Dotation facilities etc.). Inspections are carried out on a quarterly basis and include the checking of all rivulet mouths and the observation of sedimentation trends in the reservoirs. An exception to this is the Danube power plant at Freudenau where these inspections are conducted by the City of Vienna.
As part of the weir supervision, and especially in the event of flooding, each power plant on the Danube is monitored to ensure it complies with the applicable weir operation regulations.
A corresponding annual report is submitted to the supreme water rights authority.