APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110013-9
E. Inland waterways (S)
The commercially navigable waterways comprise two major systems, the Elbe and the Danube, in addition to short sections of the Oder and Tisa rivers. Totaling 517 miles, these waterways provide navigability in and bordering the country and act as a supplement to the highways and overburdened railroads. The waterways are greatly underutilized in relation to their potential; nevertheless, they are nationally and internationally important as a suitable means of low-cost short-to-long-haul movement of bulk commodities. The major systems lack interconnection and serve geographically distant portions of the country. However, landlocked Czechoslovakia has dependable river access north through East Germany to West German and Polish maritime ports on the North and Baltic Seas and southeast to Romanian and U.S.S.R. Black Sea outlets on the lower Danube.
The major waterways and their facilities are adequate for current shipping demands. The more heavily trafficked routes are well developed and maintained, and others have considerable potential for multipurpose improvement as primary transport arteries.
In 1972 the 9.5 million short tons of waterway freight, including 4.1 million tons of international transit traffic, generated 2.5 billion ton-miles. Passenger traffic averages 300,000 annually. Principal shipments are coal, construction materials, scrap metal, petroleum and petroleum products, and metal products. Important items shipped in lesser quantity include ores, grain and other foodstuffs, general cargo, and a variety of small manufactured goods. The Danube system supports the heavier volume (70%) of traffic due, in part, to the large amounts of transit cargo moved over the Czechoslovak Danube, most of which is moved upstream. On both the Elbe and Danube systems domestic traffic exceeds import-export traffic by a ratio of 2:1. On the Danube, import-export traffic is fairly balanced while on the Elbe exports exceed imports. Exports are largely in long-haul shipments moved either via East German routes to Poland for transshipment at Szczecin, or directly to Hamburg, West Germany, via the Elbe.
The Elbe system has 330 miles, including 126 miles sectionally navigable because of lockless dams on the Elbe between Pardubice and Jaromer and on the Vltava between Slapy dam and Ceske Budejovice. The Danube system provides 159 miles of navigation including 107 on the Danube, 16 on the Mall Dunaj anabranch, and 34 on the Vah upstream to Sered. Sections of the Oder and Tisa have a combined length of 20 miles. The Elbe system is mostly canalized, and a substantial degree of stability is maintained by an extensive system of regulatory dams and locks. Safe drafts generally exceed 5.9 feet, and the controlling channel width is about 165 feet on the major routes. On the Danube the primary form of regulation is a system of groins, dikes, revetments, and other training works; partial regulation of the lower Maly Dunaj and Val derives from lockless dams on the latter above Sered. Safe draft is 8.2 feet on the Danube, and the controlling channel width is 265 feet.
Operations are performed largely by self-propelled vessels and pusher trains, which are replacing the conventional stern-haul dumb-barge tows (Figure 7). On the Elbe 600-ton self-propelled units and 800-ton pusher barges are used most frequently; locks generally limit barge trains to line-ahead formations of two carriers and a towboat. In Danube operations the standard 600-ton self-propelled and dumb-barge units are being replaced by 1,000- to 1,500-ton pusher units and river-seagoing vessels up to 2,500-ton carrying capacity. The latter vessels can now operate out of Bratislava most of the year. The structurally unrestrictive Danube permits flexibility in barge-train composition, especially below Gonyu, Hungary, where wide channels, moderate currents, and greater depths allow formations of conventional tug with two rows of five 600-ton barges fleeted abreast. Pusher tows are generally limited to a towboat and two to four barges. Operations on the major routes are facilitated by floating and short-based navigational aids, and routes are equipped for night navigation. Radiotelephone and radar facilities have been installed on craft and at shore stations.
The principal traffic interruption factors are ice, floods, and prolonged high-water periods and excessive silting. Ice conditions can interrupt navigation for 50 days between mid-December and early April on the Elbe system and for 35 days between mid-December and mid-February on the Danube system and is the only principal interruption factor on the major routes. Navigation may be suspended for a week or more because of flooding, most frequently following the spring thaw but also during midsummer on the Danube system. Low-water conditions rarely halt shipping, but inadequate depths in late summer and early winter can necessitate partial loading of the larger Danube craft. Through navigation on parts of the Elbe system is suspended during yearly maintenance operations.
Structures on the waterways include locks, dams and weirs, bridges, and a safety gate. The controlling dimensions of the 35 locks on the major routes are as follows: length, 240 feet; width, 36 feet; and depth over sill, 8.2 feet. The locking cycles average 45
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110013-9
