Innovation and modernization of Gabčíkovo lock chambers

article in a collection out of WoS and Scopus

English

From 2019 to 2023, an extensive innovation and modernization took place at the lock chambers of the Gabčíkovo waterworks to increase the safety and intensity of the water transport. The waterworks is located on the Danube River about 60 km southeast of Bratislava – the capital of Slovakia. There are two lock chambers (left and right) of similar dimensions. Parameter-wise, it is a unique waterworks among the largest navigational locks in the world. The usable length of one chamber is 275 m, width 34 m and with minimum depth 4.5 m. Depending on the flow rate, the lock water gradient ranges from 12.7 m to 23.6 m. The lock consists of the upper block with gate, the six dilatation blocks of the lock chamber (length of each block is 50 m), the lower block with gate, the inlet object, the outlet object and the system of filling and emptying the channels. The locks have been in operation since 1992. After about thirty years of operation, its modernization and innovation were carried out. The total cost of the modernization is 150 million euros. Last year, the innovation of the right and left lock was completed. The lower gate, the upper gate, the safety flap gate, the regulation valves, the temporary protection dam of channels, floats, etc. were replaced. The paper focuses on the description of the innovated structures and especially on the description of new concrete structures used to ensure the transfer of forces from steel elements (gates) to the original concrete structure.

concrete, lock chamber, steel gate, reconstruction

ZICH, M.; TRNKA, M.; ŠIMEK, O.; SKALNÍK, S.

24. 9. 2024

978-80-908943-1-0

14th Central European Congress on Concrete Engineering

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