The Rhine-Main-Danube-Waterway

The Rhine-Main-Danube-Waterway builds the link between the mouth of the Rhine into the Northern Sea and the mouth of the Danube into the Black Sea.

This waterway has an extension of 3,500 km and is divided into four sections:

• The 539 km Rhine section from Rotterdam to the mouth of the river Main at Mainz
• The 384 km stretch of the river Main from Mainz to Bamberg
• The 171 km stretch of the canal between Bamberg and Kelheim
• The 2,411 km section of the Danube from Kelheim to the mouth of the Danube into the Black Sea

About 677 km of this waterway were commissioned to the Rhein-Main-Donau AG for construction or development:

• The 297 km stretch of the Main from Aschaffenburg to Bamberg
• The 171 km section of the Danube from Kelheim to Passau

The development of the river Main reached Bamberg in 1962. The Main-Danube-Canal was completed in 1992. But the 69 km section of the German Danube between Straubing and Vilshofen has not yet been developed.

According to decisions of the Conference of European Ministers of Transport the connection of Rhine-Main-Danube is considered to be one of the five most important waterway projects in Europe. Thus it should meet at least the standard of Waterway Category IV. This category permits the passage of a large motor cargo vessel with dimensions of up to 110 m length and 11.4 m beam and a draught of 2.50 m and a cargo capacity of 1,800 tons as well as a twin-barge pusher-tug assembly of up to 3,300 tons cargo capacity.

For the construction of the waterway from Aschaffenburg to Passau the Rhein-Main-Donau AG had to bear total costs of about 6,0 billion DM. This sum does not include the financing of the hydroelectric power stations.

In addition to this, there is a direct contract between Rhein-Main-Donau AG and the Federal Republic of Germany for development of the Danube sections Regensburg – Straubing and Straubing - Vilshofen. The costs resulting thereof, i.e. 1.2 billion DM for the section Regensburg – Straubing and 1.3 billion DM for the section Straubing – Vilshofen which will most probably arise for the intended development, have to be added. Thus the total investment volume will come up to 8.5 billion DM for the entire shipping route from Aschaffenburg to Passau.

The investment amount for the Main-Danube-Canal from Bamberg to Kelheim is 4.7 billion DM, which means an amount of 27.5 million DM per kilometer in relation to its total length of 171 km.

In comparison to these figures it is interesting to know, that the construction of a highway kilometer costs about 10 – 20 million DM and the construction cost of one kilometer of the new railway line between Würzburg and Hannover was 36 million DM depending on the topographic situation.