Questions answered

Final reports on Rhesi published

The Rhine is to become safer.

(Bild: IRR/Hydra)

In spring, the public was able to view around 400 plans and reports on the Rhesi flood protection project and provide feedback. The final reports with the responses were published on November 22, 2024.

From March 11 to May 31, 2024, the canton of St. Gallen carried out the so-called participation procedure in Switzerland. As no similar procedure exists in Austria, the International Rhine Regulation also published the documents in Austria in the interests of equal treatment and invited participation.
A total of 48 people, parties or organizations submitted their comments, questions, suggestions and opinions on the Rhesi flood protection project to the Canton of St. Gallen. In Austria, ten of them took part. This may sound like a small number, but it should not be underestimated. Some of the responses were very extensive, several pages long and covered a wide variety of topics. Over the past few months, the individual responses have been viewed, sorted and processed.

The responses are now available in two reports. The Canton of St. Gallen answered all the questions put to it during the consultation process in the so-called consultation report. The International Rhine Regulation, on the other hand, answered the submissions from the Austrian participation phase. Both reports can be viewed at www.rhesi.org/was-bisher-geschah/mitwirkung.

Technical details
The feedback from Austria was divided thematically into 39 statements and concerned various areas of the Rhesi project. There was a need for clarification on general topics such as the assessment basis for the discharge values of the flood protection project. However, questions were also asked about specific technical details, such as the removal of bed load or the care, maintenance and planting of the dams after construction.

 Overall, it was found that much of the feedback had already been taken into account in the planning. Some comments are now leading to even more detailed elaboration or additions to the documents for the submission project. For example, feedback on the subject of cycle paths has now been taken into account. On the other hand, non-project-related submissions, such as the specific request to combine noise protection for the Swiss highway with the flood protection project, could not be taken into account, according to the International Rhine Regulation. 

Rhesi is a mammoth project to make the Rhine safer. The discharge capacity of the Rhine will be increased from 3,100 to 4,300 m3/s over the entire length of the international stretch (Rhine kilometers 65 to 91). The Rhesi project thus protects the living space and jobs of around 300,000 people in the St. Gallen and Vorarlberg Rhine Valley.