Development of flood protection works in Budapest can continue

The pace at which the capital city can further develop its flood protection measures depends on whether it can obtain EU funding. According to the announcement published in the EU public procurement notice announcement published in the EU public procurement notice, the Municipality of Budapest has launched a conditional public procurement procedure for the implementation of engineering and construction tasks in relation to flood protection sections 37-38 and defence line 101 in Pest-Észak.
These sections refer to the wall and embankment on Komp Street in Újpest, the protective structure next to Váci Road, and the embankment of the North Pest Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The aim of the project is to ensure that the embankment reaches the legally required height in the affected sections, which was determined on the basis of the record flood wave magnitude in 2013.

The area around the waste water treatment plant will be affected

The capital city would finance the project from the Environment and Energy Efficiency Operational Programme Plus (KEHOP PLUSZ). The EU provides support to member countries to tackle the effects of climate change - floods, droughts, etc.

According to the notice, the company selected in the public procurement will be responsible for: the design and construction of the 1,630-metre-long section of the 101 flood protection line in the Pest-Northern Hungary flood protection section. The works will be carried out around the North Pest Wastewater Treatment Plant and its buffer zone, while on the southern side it will be connected to the 37th section of the protection line perpendicular to Zsilip Street.

Retaining walls and flood protection embankments and roads may be built

The contractor will be responsible for the construction of a flood protection embankment on a stretch of about 840 metres and a reinforced concrete retaining wall on about 790 metres. The latter would be constructed to the level of the MÁSZ, i.e. the flood level plus 1.30 metres. The construction of a maintenance road of about 1 630 m, including the embankment and the flood barrier substructure, is also an additional construction task. The flood protection structure to be developed is not mobile but fixed, with a flood protection wall in some sections. The total length of the protection line affected by the project is 2.82 km.

The barriers along Váci utca may also be higher

Until mid-November, contractors can also submit their bids for the design and construction of the Pest-Northern flood protection section 37 and 38.

The starting section of the section concerned by the project connects to the end point of section 101 at Zsilip Street. The 500 m long protection line, parallel to the Danube embankment, reaches Váci út at the petrol station at 16 Váci út. The latter is the starting point of the 38th section, which is also affected by the works and runs along Váci út for 585 metres to the transformer house at No 200.
On this section of the flood protection works, the following project elements are to be carried out by the contractor's experts:

•  on section 37, about 220 metres of the original retaining wall, the widening of which and the slotted wall having been completed earlier, will have to be supplemented with mobile wall elements,
•  on section 38, a reinforced concrete retaining wall of about 115 metres in length, including the substructures,
•  100 m of reinforced concrete retaining wall along both sections, with the addition of mobile elements and the construction of substructures,
•  construction of a 135 m long reinforced concrete slurry wall with mobile elements on designated parts of both sections.

The first phase of the development is already complete

The capital has previously identified the reinforcement of the protection line on the bank of the Danube at Újpest on the Pest side as the most important flood protection development task.

The reinforcement of section 35 has been completed so far with EU funding. It runs for 1,680 metres from the Megyeri Csárda southwards, behind the Fővárosi Vízművek site, to the North Pest Wastewater Treatment Plant embankment.

Here, the earth fill was raised, clay core was added to ensure impermeability, and a retaining wall was built along a significant length of the southern section.
The next phase of the development will involve the construction of the barriers in the above-mentioned sections up to the legally required height, which was raised after the record flooding in 2013.