As of: March 1, 2024, 11:00 a.m
By: Magdalena Höcherl
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Renovation work is being carried out in the Auer canal system (symbolic photo).
© Oberhuser/IMAGO
The recent heavy rain events have shown that the Au market urgently needs to renovate its sewer system.
It is already clear: This will be expensive – and time-consuming.
Au/Hallertau
– On August 26, 2023, the world briefly ended in Au.
At that time, Mayor Hans Sailer made it clear that there had not been a heavy rain event of this magnitude for decades, and even older citizens could not remember such a storm.
At the market town council meeting on Tuesday, the town hall boss looked back and explained: “Even cellars that had never been full were filling up.” Since this storm, it has been clear at the latest that the sewer network has reached its limits – also due to compaction – and that some rainwater has not more could be absorbed.
Last September, the market council commissioned the engineering firm Dippold and Gerold from Gemering to create a sewer rehabilitation system for the main town of Au for around 80,000 euros.
In other words: The structural condition of the sewer system is recorded.
In order to develop a complete renovation concept, a hydraulic calculation of the sewer network is also necessary.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
“It makes no sense to repair a canal that actually needs to be replaced by a canal with a larger diameter,” said Michael Schütte from the planning office, explaining the background.
There is no question that it is time for a new hydraulic calculation: the last one dates back to 1986.
In addition to the theoretical calculation, it is planned to carry out practical measurements at two or three points in the sewer network during heavy rain.
All data is then brought together and compared so that a comprehensive renovation concept can be created on this basis.
According to Schütte, the renovation itself is an “ongoing measure” that will extend over the next few years.
Barbara Prügl (GOL) said that after the recent heavy rain events, many citizens had experiences with channels that were not fully functional and wanted to know whether this data would also be taken into account.
Schütte said yes, but also made it clear that flooding in the basement or the like could not always be attributed to an inadequate sewer network.
Sometimes these are “home-made problems”, for example due to the construction method.
And of course there are also severe weather events for which a sewer network simply cannot be designed.
“You have to accept that.”
Ultimately, the market town councils voted unanimously to create the hydraulic calculation for around 70,000 euros.
The planner emphasized: “The sewer system is the largest asset of a municipality.
Unfortunately, it's underground, so you often don't have as much visibility of it as you should.” In Au, they're a little late with upgrading the sewer network anyway.
“But it’s good that you’re doing this now,” he told the councilors.
MAGDALENA HÖCHERL
You can find even more current news from the Freising district at Merkur.de/Freising.