Neuwied flood protection dike
The Neuwied flood protection dike was erected in Neuwied am Rhein between 1928 and 1931 and protects the low-lying town in the Neuwied basin from the flooding of the Rhine. The initiator of this dike was the then mayor Robert Krups . The protection system consists of an approx. 7.5 km long dike, of which approx. 500 meters is a massive dyke wall.
Starting position
Since the foundation of the city of Neuwied in the 17th century, the residents have been regularly affected by floods after the snowmelt on the Upper Rhine, which in particular flooded the core area of the city. Great floods in 1683, 1741 or 1784 caused considerable damage and hampered the city's development. In particular, the so-called “ice floods” in winter had a destructive force that also caused considerable damage to the buildings. In order to prevent large ice damage in the city, the proposal was made to plant two eight-row poplar trees in the area of the Rheinauer Hof . In the 18th and 19th centuries, like today, there were times without major floods. At that time, two dikes were built to seal off the branch of the Rhine, Die Schleidt . The water flowed through it from the land side of Neuwied into the city. A trigger for the construction of the dyke were the three floods of 1920, 1924 and 1926. At the last flood the water was three meters high in the city and the damage amounted to three to five million RM. Mayor Krups was supported in the initiative to build the dam by the then Reichstag member Eduard Verhülsdonk .
The construction of the dike
The construction of the dike was a major engineering achievement at the time, for which a dyke construction office was set up. Overall, the construction was completed with around 200,000 man-days. The construction costs amounted to 7.7 million Reichsmarks, of which the city of Neuwied took over 1.7 million, the provincial and imperial government paid a grant of 6 million.
System description
The height of the dike is about 5 m above the Rheinuferweg, a level of 11.20 m (1 meter above the highest known water level of 1928) was set for the height of the dike crown. The walled middle section of the dam has three dike gates that are closed according to a specified plan. There are further culverts on Kappelstrasse, Bundesstrasse 42 and on the Rasselstein site. There are two transverse gates at the largest opening on Sandkaulerweg and in the Dammstrasse / corner Rheinstrasse area. Smaller locks are located on the stairs that lead from the dike wall to the banks of the Rhine and on the castle terrace. These passages are not closed with gates, but in the past with double layers of beams that were filled with clay, today steel structures are used for this. Three pumping stations keep the groundwater level at a certain level. From a certain level on the Rhine, groundwater penetrates the cellars of the houses in the city center. The locations of the pumping stations are: under the dike museum, near the Rhine bridge (Kappelstrasse), and on the Rasselstein site. The total delivery of all pumps is around 13 cubic meters per second. In the event of a flood, various agencies and aid organizations become active, with the Neuwied fire brigade in charge .
The dike in numbers
For the construction of the Rhine dike:
- 66,000 m³ of topsoil removed
- 14,300 m³ clay and
- 207,000 m³ of flood clay installed as the core
- A total of 430,000 tons of soil were moved.
- 90,000 tons of rock were blown up on the Wied near Irlich.
For the construction of the dyke wall:
- 33,500 tons of native greywacke , basalt and lava stones were used as well
- 3,000 tons of Würzburg sandstone for the cladding
- 25,000 m³ of concrete
- 7,250 tons of cement and
- 450 tons of trass mortar .
So that the subsoil could bear the weight of the wall, around 2,000 reinforced concrete piles with a length of 7.5 - 8.5 m were rammed into the ground and 1,260 tons of sheet piling were built , which reach up to 11 meters deep. 25 construction companies and 90 delivery companies were involved in the construction. Another 60 companies worked on the dike restaurant. During the construction period, 2,450 emergency workers were employed who performed around 180,000 daily jobs.
- Total length of the dike: 7.5 kilometers.
probation
Since its completion in 1931, the dike has protected Neuwied's city center from flooding. The highest flood since then at the Neuwied gauge on December 23, 1993 was measured at 10.28 m and was about 90 cm below the top of the dike.
Dike information center
As a technical museum and permanent information for an existing dike protection system on the Rhine, the exhibition “Deichinformationszentrum Neuwied” was made accessible to the public.
Memorial for Robert Krups, "Deichkrone" in the background
Closed Deichtor (Mittelstrasse)
Level tower
Passage at the intersection Rheinstr./Kappelstr.
See also
literature
- Koch, Hermann: The flood on the Rhine in the winter of 1882/83. Neuwied 1883 ( dilibri )
- City of Neuwied (ed.), The flood protection of the city of Neuwied , brochure with four illustrations and a foreword by Mayor Krups. Neuwied 1927. ( dilibri )
