HYDRO
photo credits: Hydro-Construct
The new and flexible Hydro-Construct Barrage de Vaux replacement rubber tube weir dam on the Yonne has been damming the river since the end of 2019. At around this time the second system installed by the Upper Austrian company in France was commissioned successfully at the Aqua Bella power plant on the river Arc.
HYDRO-CONSTRUCT RUBBER DAM SYSTEMS CONVINCE ALL ROUND IN FRANCE
Hydro-Construct GmbH is an internationally renowned company from Steyr in Upper Austria. In 2019 and 2020 the company gained an initial foothold in the French market by installing two rubber dam systems. Hydro-Construct provided a single field water-filled rubber dam across the River Arc for the new Aqua Bella hydropower plant, measuring 34.5 m across, holding a water depth of 4.15 m and serving 4 VLH (Very Low Head) turbines. Renewal of the Barrage de Vaux dam on the Yonne River near Auxerre involved replacing the ‘original’ 19th-century two-field, water-filled needle dam. Each individual weir field can be regulated in parallel with the other, ensure a dam-wall water depth of 1.9 m and is 27.3 m wide. Now these first two French reference systems have gone online, Hydro-Construct is confident they will lead to follow-on contracts in France in the near future.
T
here is one major benefit of deploying flexible rubber dam systems on broad, large-surface bodies of water. In con trast to conventional damming or water-level regulation solutions, rubber tube dam systems can be installed across extremely broad rivers, without immense structural changes to the natural course or banks of the river. For several years Hydro-Construct GmbH from Upper Austria has been providing its triedand-tested air- and water-filled rubber dam systems for a wide variety of purposes all over the world. Based in Steyr, in 2012 the company completed a project in Albania, installing Europe’s broadest rubber dam at 265 m end-
The interior of the Barrage de Vaux rubber dam weir. Installa tion of the filling and water-release pipes, and the anchor rails.
May 2022
Projekt Hydro Construct Frankreich zek Hydro International 2022.indd 37
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06.05.2022 14:00:16
