Investigations of the soil and groundwater are starting on the Lech between the Merching barrage and the Hochablass in Augsburg. The soil characteristics obtained by the end of the work in February next year will be incorporated into the detailed technical planning for the intended renaturation of the river in this section.
With the more than 260 planned tests over the next few months, the Donauwörth Water Management Office wants to find out how the existing safeguards on the banks of the Lech can be dismantled so that the river bed can be widened from the current 70 meters to 130 meters. To do this, the hydraulic engineering experts need to know how the current bank protection is structured and whether there are any hidden protections. In order to ensure the stability of the flood protection dykes even after renaturation, information about the individual soil layers is required. Those responsible for the project want to set up a measuring network of more than 40 groundwater measuring points in order to document changes in the groundwater.
The renaturation of the Lech near Augsburg is one of the largest river renaturation projects in Bavaria. The Water Management Office intends to present details of the planning to the public in the coming year.