Waterways (Austria)
The rivers suitable for inland navigation in the territory of the Republic of Austria are referred to as Austrian waterways (also federal waterways ) . These are the Danube with the Danube Canal , the mouth of the Enns and parts of Traun and March .
Jurisdiction
Pursuant to Article 10, Paragraph 1, Item 10 of the Federal Constitutional Act , the “construction and maintenance of waterways” in legislation and enforcement are tasks of the federal government. Section 15 of the Shipping Act determines its exact course:
- “ Waterways are the Danube (including the Vienna Danube Canal), the March, the Enns and the Traun, with all their arms, side canals, ports and branches, with the exception of the parts of the water listed in Appendix 2. "
This means that the Danube, including the Vienna Danube Canal, is a waterway in the entire course of the river with the exception of the Abblas, Melk, Altenwörth, Greifenstein and New Danube barrages. The same applies to the March to river km 6.0, the Enns to river km 2.70 and Traun to river km 1.80. The ministry responsible for enforcing the laws affecting federal waterways is the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology . Specifically, the agendas are handled by the "IV / W3 Federal Waterways" department.
Federal Waterways Administration
The sovereign administration of the waterways is also the responsibility of the Federal Waterway Administration. Her tasks include regulation, maintenance and expansion of watercourses, flood protection, monitoring of the watercourse condition and participation in measures against water pollution, bank design, planning, construction and maintenance of stairways, construction and maintenance of federal ports and federal states or the administration of public water resources.
Via Donau GmbH
In addition, to fulfill the waterway-specific tasks of the federal government, in particular the federal waterway administration, the " via donau - Österreichische Wasserstraßen-Gesellschaft mbH", based in Vienna, was merged to establish a new company by incorporating the Österreichische DONAU-Betriebs-Aktiengesellschaft, the Austrian DONAU-Technik-GmbH and via donau - Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH for telematics and Danube shipping established.