Mainly on the Elbe River - Central Europe

Chart 3 - The number of passages through the chamber locks on the lower section of the Elbe
Source: Povodí Labe, a state enterprise
river, according to the commodity type, in 2008
Completion of the navigability of the medium course of the Elbe river up to Pardubice also
belongs among the priority projects OPD. According to the original plans, the construction of a
3.150 m long channel on the Elbe river between Přelouč and Pardubice was supposed to be
finished in 2011, which would extend the Elbe waterway from Hamburg to approx. 870 km and
connect Pardubice to European inland waterways.
Both these projects are at hold awaiting approval from the Czech Ministry of Environment and
the environmental associations obstructing the realization of such plans.
Among other future goals, OPD proposed elimination of narrow sections and normalization of
parameters of the existing Elbe-Vltava waterway, completion of navigability of the Vltava river
between Třebenice and České Budějovice and investments into port infrastructure, telematics and
vessel modernization.
2.2.2 Germany
There are 7 300 km of inland waterways in Germany from which 75% are rivers and 25% are
channels. The primary network (category IV waterways and higher) covers 5 100 km and it
consists of the Rhein river (and its tributaries the Neckar, the Main, the Mosel, the Saar rivers), the
Danube, the Wesser, the Elbe river and a network of channels connecting these rivers with the
Oder river. This system belongs in the TEN-T network.
A feasibility study for “Improvement of Conditions for the River Transport in Central Europe (mainly on the Elbe
River)“ realized within the ChemLog project 23