Although the town of Ebersbach an der Fils already has extensive flood protection facilities, several flood events in the past led to flooding in the settlement areas of the city. In September 2019, Tractebel Hydroprojekt GmbH was awarded the contract for the planning of the flood protection for the city of Ebersbach by the Stuttgart Regional Council as the lead authority in a Europe-wide tender procedure of the state of Baden-Württemberg.
The predetermined design of flood protection was on an HQ100 of the Fils with climate surcharge (445 m³/s) plus freeboard. The project area is the water course of the Fils, a first-order body of water, on a length of 2.8 km on both banks within the city of Ebersbach.
The basic investigation was completed in December 2019. The preliminary planning, which includes the upgrading of existing flood protection systems as well as a combination of new river dikes and embankment walls with few mobile closures for the maintenance of transport links, was submitted in June 2020, and the preferred option was confirmed in July 2020.
In the course of the planning, the numerous existing flood protection facilities were examined in an inventory analysis, whether they meet the current requirements and if not whether they can be upgraded with reasonable effort. Another challenge in this project is the settlement structures built extremely close to the river in large areas.
The planned flood protection facilities must therefore not only be adapted to the existing buildings. In addition, the existing buildings require special planning of construction logistics during production at this early stage, which usually becomes relevant only in later planning phases.
The tender for the site exploration by an external office is currently in preparation, so that the design planning is to be drawn up from spring 2021. The approval process could then be carried out in 2022.
Stefan Reil - Munich