Mainly on the Elbe River - Central Europe

Graph 9 - Commodity transport by inland waterways (thousands of tons) – only vessels
thous
ands
of
tons
1 200
1 000
800
600
400
200
0
registered in the CR – purified data
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
international purified national
Source: CityPlan based on the data from the Transport yearbook
The purified data offer a completely different view of the Elbe transport. While the performance
of Czech transporters within third country and cabotage transport is increasing, the national
transport in the CR decreases. Total volume of transported goods by inland waterways (purified
national & international transport) decreased by 57 % between the years 2000 and 2008 (vessels
registered in the CR only) with the exception of the year 2005 when a temporary increase
occurred, which was not comparable to the values from the year 2000.
Many studies proved that the only possible way to improve navigation conditions in such
problematic section is by building navigable locks. After rejecting three- and five-level options, the
suggested solution settled on a two-level option with one navigable lock in Malé Březno (82 nd river
km) and the other in Dolní Žleb (103 rd river km). Due to disapproval of state environmental
authorities and environmental groups, the navigable lock was relocated from Dolní Žleb to
Prostřední Žleb. After this project was also refused, the compromise was reached by a one-level
project The Děčín navigable lock (the Government resolution no. 337/2005).
A feasibility study for “Improvement of Conditions for the River Transport in Central Europe (mainly on the Elbe
River)“ realized within the ChemLog project 143