Erosion protection for the Danube delta in Romania Slider

Erosion protection for the Danube delta in Romania

 

October 10, 2012 | Markus Lackner

The Felbermayr subsidiary, Reinhold Meister Wasserbau, which specialises in hydraulic engineering, has been working on measures to reinforce the Sulina canal in Romania since July. The construction site is in the middle of the Danube delta and lies approximately 25 km from the mouth of the Danube where it flows into the Black Sea.

The project, entitled "Bank protection on Sulina Channel – Contract C1", is primarily aimed at protecting the embankment and the bank of the river. "Our main task is to shape and reinforce the embankment over a 15 km stretch of the Sulina Canal to protect it against erosion," explains project manager Reinhold Meister. However, the job specification for Reinhold Meister Wasserbau GmbH also includes constructing a nine metre-long embankment path.

"By the time it is completed in December, we will have used around 130,000 t of armour stone and geotextile filter layers covering 55,000 sqm," says Meister, listing some of the key data for the project. "Owing to the difficult terrain in the Danube delta, all the equipment and construction materials have to be delivered by ship," Meister explains when describing one of the particular features of the construction site. In the case of the armour-stone, this means that at any one time, up to eight barges are in operation transporting materials. The two quarries are 30 and 150 km away, so journey times of four days are not uncommon. However, since the materials must meet given specifications, this is something that simply has to be accepted, according to Meister.

Other machinery in use on site includes three excavating pontoons with equipment weighing 70 t and long-arm excavators. Equipment for laying the geotextile filter layers is also being used. As Meister says: "Fascines – that's giant bundles of wood – are normally used to build dams of this kind. But as the quantities required cannot reasonably be taken from the Danube delta nature conservation area, we have proposed the use of geotextile filter layers to guarantee value engineering. These consist of two layers of construction fleece filled with granulate." This system is actually being used for the first time in Romania.

The project became necessary owing to the increasing silting up of the delta through sediment. "At the time, it wasn't uncommon for ships to simply get stuck in the mud," explains Meister. The number of wrecks on the banks bears silent witness to this. Since the Danube delta is also a designated area of conservation, much importance is attached to maintaining the flora and fauna, as well as meeting shipping needs. Therefore, close co-operation with the environmental ombudsman for Romania is also a major factor in the practical processing of the order.