KliNa Project of the Month 04/2025
 

Flood protection & drainage on the new ÖBB railway route Vienna – St. Pölten in the section Tullnerfeld & Tunnel Atzenbrugg.

The flood event in September 2024 has shown once again how decisive forward-looking flood protection is for our infrastructure and the environment. Along the new ÖBB route Vienna – St. Pölten in the area of Tullnerfeld and Tunnel Atzenbrugg the impacts of the extreme rainfalls and their far-reaching consequences for the infrastructure became visible – sedimentation and alluvial deposits caused by overflowing of the water bodies nearby like Perschling river, Perschling flood relief channel and Egelseergraben.

On behalf of ÖBB Infrastruktur AG our interdisciplinary team from the Competence Centers Water Management and Life Cycle Engineering & Asset Management analysed the sections concerned. On-site inspections combined with digital surveys by means of RecordIT, resulting in a comprehensive photo documentation, were performed. The documented traces enabled conclusions on overflowing, flow paths and the impact on the railway facilities.

This well-founded survey is the basis for targeted, sustainable drainage solutions – with the objective to protect railway infrastructures in the long run, to ensure the safety in operation and to face climate-related extreme weather events with resilience.

In collaboration with ÖBB we are developing sophisticated engineering measures which satisfy the natural circumstances and support the climate-fit expansion of our traffic routes at the same time.