📋 Tender Overview
Construction work on the Wiental Canal has reached another milestone. Drilling work for the 9-kilometer-long sewage tunnel under the Wien River has started on the Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel in the 12th district. Drilling is taking place in two directions, to Margareten in the east and to Auhof in the west. Michaela Schüchner, district mayor of Penzing, has taken over the patronage of the western tube and carried out the symbolic tunnel tapping on October 9. This ceremony, which is important for the start of construction of the tunnel, is supposed to bring good luck. In addition to the entire team from the Bemo Tunneling & Oestu Stettin working group, the city councilor for climate affairs Jürgen Czernohorszky and Vienna Canal director Andreas Ilmer were also present.
Preliminary work has been underway since March 2024. From the 18 by 8 meter starting shaft on the Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel, the miners are now digging a tunnel 15 meters long to the west and 105 meters long to the east at a depth of 15 meters. The two drives are being built using the new Austrian tunneling method with shotcrete construction. From 2025, the approximately 130 meter long tunnel boring machine will be threaded into this 138 meter long starting tube piece by piece, assembled and simultaneously driven in the direction.
Tunnel sponsor hits with the excavator
The project will start with the approximately 7-kilometer-long westward drive towards the 14th district. The construction team has therefore asked Penzing's district mayor, Michaela Schüchner, for her assistance. As tunnel sponsor, she will symbolically hold a protective hand over this structure for the next one and a half years. The start of the tunnel excavation work is an important moment for the construction team.
At the christening of the "Michaela Tunnel", godmother Michaela Schüchner vowed to take care of the physical well-being of the workforce during the construction work and wished everyone the best of luck. Schüchner said in her speech to the miners: "The construction work here at the starting shaft is impressive. I have great respect for your work. Above all, I hope that there are no accidents or incidents and that everyone arrives safely in the 14th district."
The voluntary work as tunnel sponsor began with the first cut. It is basically the groundbreaking ceremony for the tunnel. The district mayor set an excavator in motion with a chisel and hammered the first strike into the shaft wall. A "Good luck!" plaque and a statue of Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners and construction workers, were attached to the tunnel portal.
Century project Wiental Canal secures future
The Wiental Canal under the Wien River will be extended by 9 kilometers along six districts by 2027. This will continue what was started between 1997 and 2006 between the Danube Canal and Margareten in three sections of 3.5 kilometers: improving the water quality for the Wien River and relieving the pressure on the sewer network during heavy rain. In addition, the existing canals can be renovated efficiently and safely.
Climate City Councillor Jürgen Czernohorszky: "The full expansion of the Wiental Canal is an important investment in the future to protect the environment. Heavy rainfall events, which we are experiencing more frequently due to the climate crisis, are a major burden on our waters. With the Wiental Canal, we are protecting the Wien River from pollution during heavy rain. This is not only an important contribution to water protection, but also to the quality of life of the people of Vienna."
center of the construction site at Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel
The hub for all tunnel construction activities is the 12,000 square meter area between the two beltway lanes on the border between the 5th, 6th, 12th and 15th districts on the Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel. Due to its size and convenient location, the site is the ideal logistics hub for the delivery of machinery and tunnel parts as well as the removal of drilling material.
Vienna Canal Director Andreas Ilmer on the dimensions of this largest canal construction project in the history of Vienna Canal: "A total of 42,800 tunnel blocks and 140,000 cubic meters of earth material will be transferred from the truck to the tunnel boring machine and vice versa. The storage areas required for this are located here, as are the construction offices, accommodation for the drilling teams, workshops and energy supply systems."
Via Vienna Canal
With a pipeline length of more than 2,500 kilometers - that's the distance from Vienna to Paris and back - Wien Kanal is Austria's largest sewer network operator. Every day, half a billion liters of wastewater from 2 million people, 170,000 buildings and 7 surrounding communities are transported safely and in an environmentally friendly manner to the sewage treatment plant in Simmering. Around 450 employees keep the sewer network functional and clean. For example, between 15 and 20 tons of deposited material are cleared from the sewers every day to guarantee the flow to the sewage treatment plant.
99.8 percent of all households are connected to Vienna's sewer system. And the sewer network grows by around ten kilometers every year. Over 1,000 construction sites are set up every year to repair and maintain the public sewer network - and this usually goes completely unnoticed by the above world. On average, five kilometers of sewer are renovated underground, i.e. with almost no excavation. The robots from Vienna Canal also operate underground. Last year alone, they covered more than 200 kilometers in the sewage labyrinth and inspected the pipes for damage.
