Civil engineering

Basic overhaul of weir Horkheim

Since 2012 HEBERGER in joint venture has been working with a construction company to restore the stability and operational safety of the weir built in 1927-1929 in Horkheim while the weir system is in operation. The weir is listed as a historical monument, which is why the requirements of monument protection must be strictly observed when the weir piers and footbridges are being repaired.

Another special feature is that the construction site is not flood-protected and can be flooded during floods. Moreover, the construction site is only accessible on one side via bridges with a weight load of 12 tons. For this reason, larger and heavier construction vehicles (e.g. sheet pile wall pile drivers, mobile cranes), construction equipments (sheet piles, the bridges to be rehabilitated) and construction materials have to be transported by ship.

Many works, such as the construction of the sheet piling or the injection anchors, can only be carried out with floating equipment. This also necessitates extensive diving work, including the construction of the excavation pit enclosure and the press anchor to secure the buoyancy of the weir bed. The three weir fields will be rehabilitated in three separate construction phases in order to ensure the operation of the plant with the two remaining weir fields in the event of flooding. For this purpose, the individual weir field is drained with a sheet pile wall and a dam beam closure in the approx. 8 m deep Neckar river. During the concreting work approx. eight colleagues are on the construction site in Horkheim. HEBERGER has already carried out several orders for individual water and shipping authorities in the past – this is the largest and most extensive with an order volume of 17,2 million euros and a calculated construction period of six years.