Danube water levels 2024 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[Yorkieboy1972]

Our TUI Rep has now told us there WILL be problems. The plan is to stop off in Linz to drop off those who’ve got trips booked. We will then sail on to Aschach and those who stopped in Linz will be bussed to meet us. We’ll then sail on passed the bridge and park up.

 

I’m calling rubbish on that and we should just completely miss out Linz and get under the bridge.

[Lazirus65]

3 hours ago, bvm49 said:

I'm following this discussion. As our Viking cruise leaves from Bucharest on July 10th, we don't get to Passau until July 22nd. Hope water levels are fine by then.

Brian 

Will let you know as we leave Amsterdam on the 19th June, if your on the Lofn you get on as we get off.

[steamboats]

@AnhaltER1960 I do live in Bavaria and sure I do want to know what to expect. Anyway nobody does know it exactly.

 

And once again I am surprised that Viking this time is acting in advance while they always were the last ones to react.

 

steamboats 

 

PS: No need to get worried about me. I'm sitting high and dry. The Isar river is close but 90 ft below.

[notamermaid]

36 minutes ago, steamboats said:

And it's surprising that Viking ist rerouting so early. Usually they are the last to do so and totally surprised by the situation.

They have learnt from previous communication disasters. But I admit that I was a bit surprised about the four day warning and e-mail. I think it will prove to be a good move.

 

notamermaid

 

[bvm49]

44 minutes ago, Lazirus65 said:

Will let you know as we leave Amsterdam on the 19th June, if your on the Lofn you get on as we get off.

Dave, thanks, I'll look out for your report. Yes, we will be on the Lofn, hopefully!

If you want to email me any changes, my address is: b.mcnamee at bigpond dot com

Hope you have a good cruise

Brian 

[notamermaid]

Just now, steamboats said:

PS: No need to get worried about me. I'm sitting high and dry. The Isar river is close but 90 ft below.

I thought about your situation in Munich and remembered that you said the Isar is definitely far down enough from you.

 

Kelheim gauge is forecast to rise during the night, Regensburg will follow soon. We can expect the 630cm at Passau by early evening tomorrow. It may be earlier or later but it looks certain to happen.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

16 minutes ago, Yorkieboy1972 said:

Our TUI Rep has now told us there WILL be problems. The plan is to stop off in Linz to drop off those who’ve got trips booked. We will then sail on to Aschach and those who stopped in Linz will be bussed to meet us. We’ll then sail on passed the bridge and park up.

 

I’m calling rubbish on that and we should just completely miss out Linz and get under the bridge.

I understand what you mean - better run the ship upstream as fast as possible and make it through Passau. Bussing and letting the ship sail on in the meantime is an interesting plan for Linz, typical for saving time and a standard on some itineraries, but more on the Main than on the Danube. I do hope the timing works.

 

notamermaid

 

[steamboats]

So far it´s raining... just raining, no extreme heavy rain. Passau is slightly going up with 5.95 m at 7:30 am.

 

We have a big street festival coming up this weekend starting tomorrow at 4 pm. It´s not cancelled. They say the rain will impacted the preparations but by the start of the festival it shouldn´t be as much rain anymore.

 

steamboats

[Canal archive]

11 hours ago, steamboats said:

@AnhaltER1960 I do live in Bavaria and sure I do want to know what to expect. Anyway nobody does know it exactly.

 

And once again I am surprised that Viking this time is acting in advance while they always were the last ones to react.

 

steamboats 

 

PS: No need to get worried about me. I'm sitting high and dry. The Isar river is close but 90 ft below.

Interesting you quoted in ft! 
The situation sounds very much like some of the areas in the U.K. the ground water levels are so very very high that the river basins cannot cope. Luckily the larger navigable rivers are usually looked after, dredged etc but the smaller feeder rivers are so often left to their own devices then adding to the pressures on the system as a whole. We have amazing river systems across all! of Europe we should as nations be protecting it but that’s up to us a citizens not the visitors who hopefully enjoy it and won’t if it’s not looked after. Sorry another rant and we can’t control the rain but hopefully the experts can look into the situation for a helpful solution.

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Sorry another rant and we can’t control the rain but hopefully the experts can look into the situation for a helpful solution.

The awareness is there, growing. And the local authorities have often what they call a "Starkregenkonzept". This essentially means that one should have an idea of what to do to prevent local flooding when it rains heavily. After the floods of 2021 we are painfully aware of what the smaller rivers can do in Rhineland-Palatinate. But elsewhere it is the same - you can even look up online for your particular street what will happen in a 10-year-flood, etc.

 

Sometimes it just proves too much - like it always has done over the centuries.

 

We need to look after our smaller places better, for sure. There is room for improvement.

 

5 hours ago, steamboats said:

We have a big street festival coming up this weekend starting tomorrow at 4 pm. It´s not cancelled. They say the rain will impacted the preparations but by the start of the festival it shouldn´t be as much rain anymore.

I know you are not the "roaring fun" type of person but I hope you have a good weekend.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[steamboats]

4 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Interesting you quoted in ft! 

 

Trying to adjust to the fact that this is basically an US website ;-). We´re roughly 30 m higher than our local river.

 

The city of Munich has 14 hughe underground rainwater collecting basins. Here´s a nice photo and graphic of the largest. I had the pleasure to get a tour of the one pictured and we´ve been only down in the first of those four levels. The main reason for those basins is to keep our river clear. All water goes through our water treatment facility which of course would overflow if all water is coming at the same time. So the basins keep the water and let it off time by time. So unless a local drainage is cloaked up we don´t have bigger floodings in the streets or under bridges.

 

The river gauge at Passau is now at 6.07 m (1 pm). The critical 6.30 m are forecasted for 6 pm today. The forecast still doesn´t show flood level 1 (which is 7 m).

 

steamboats

Edited May 31 by steamboats

[Yorkieboy1972]

24 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

Trying to adjust to the fact that this is basically an US website ;-). We´re roughly 30 m higher than our local river.

 

The city of Munich has 14 hughe underground rainwater collecting basins. Here´s a nice photo and graphic of the largest. I had the pleasure to get a tour of the one pictured and we´ve been only down in the first of those four levels. The main reason for those basins is to keep our river clear. All water goes through our water treatment facility which of course would overflow if all water is coming at the same time. So the basins keep the water and let it off time by time. So unless a local drainage is cloaked up we don´t have bigger floodings in the streets or under bridges.

 

The river gauge at Passau is now at 6.07 m (1 pm). The critical 6.30 m are forecasted for 6 pm today. The forecast still doesn´t show flood level 1 (which is 7 m).

 

steamboats

Steamboats

 

When you say 6.3m is “critical” is that when cruise ships can’t get under?

[Canal archive]

Yeh although we’re supposed to be metric I still automatically work in what we in the U.K. refer to as Imperial and do the mental calculations.

[steamboats]

6 minutes ago, Yorkieboy1972 said:

Steamboats

 

When you say 6.3m is “critical” is that when cruise ships can’t get under?

Yes, that's when the first boats can't pass under the bridge anymore.

 

steamboats 

[Yorkieboy1972]

2 minutes ago, steamboats said:

Yes, that's when the first boats can't pass under the bridge anymore.

 

steamboats 

We’ve just arrived in Linz to drop people off. We’ve got no chance of getting to Passau before 6pm.

[Yorkieboy1972]

Sorry to be a pain but now I’m completely confused.

 

I’ve just spoken to the driver and our issue isn’t Passau because we can pass with 7m level. He says our problem is at Bogen.

[steamboats]

1 hour ago, Yorkieboy1972 said:

I’ve just spoken to the driver and our issue isn’t Passau because we can pass with 7m level. He says our problem is at Bogen.

 

The bridge at Passau has a height of 5.15 m. There´s a train bridge near Bogen which has only 5 m. This height is a technical number for comparison.

 

Here´s a list of the bridge heights of the Danube river.

 

steamboats

 

 

[DocHifi]

Here is that list of bridges in english:

 

Directory of Bridge Clearances in the GDWS District Würzburg Area - Danube

Bad Abbach Section

1. Maximilianbrücke Kelheim (2414.250 km): Clearance Height - 5.25 m, Width - 17.25 m
2. Europabrücke Kelheim (2412.720 km): Clearance Height - 6.80 m, Width - 31.10 m
3. Saal Bridge (2410.100 km): Clearance Height - 7.10 m, Width - 64.40 m
4. Poikam Railway Bridge (2401.920 km): Clearance Height - 7.05 m, Width - 28.75 m
5. Bad Abbach Weir Bridge (2401.740 km): Clearance Height - 6.40 m, Width - 48.45 m
6. Bad Abbach Economic Path Bridge (2400.280 km): Clearance Height - 6.45 m, Width - 48.60 m
7.  

Regensburg Section

7. Sinzing Highway Bridge (2387.590 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 49.25 m
8. Sinzing Railway and Pedestrian Bridge (2386.710 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 48.65 m
9. Mariaort Railway Bridge (2385.670 km): Clearance Height - 8.65 m, Width - 32.60 m
10. Pfaffenstein Highway Bridge (2381.130 km): Clearance Height - 6.75 m, Width - 35.00 m
11. Pfaffenstein Pedestrian and Bike Bridge (2381.040 km): Clearance Height - 6.60 m, Width - 37.00 m
12. Oberpfalz Bridge (2380.170 km): Clearance Height - 6.40 m, Width - 65.00 m
13. Protzenweiher Bridge (2379.560 km): Clearance Height - 6.65 m, Width - Chamber Width
14. Iron Bridge (2379.260 km): Clearance Height - 2.45 m, Width - 32.05 m
15. Nibelungen Bridge (South) (2378.450 km): Clearance Height - 6.90 m, Width - 74.00 m
16. Nibelungen Bridge (North) (2378.390 km): Clearance Height - 6.95 m, Width - 50.20 m
17. Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Downstream) (2376.820 km): Clearance Height - 5.95 m, Width - 34.00 m
18. Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Upstream) (2376.820 km): Clearance Height - 6.00 m, Width - 33.00 m
19. Schwabelweis Road Bridge (2376.330 km): Clearance Height - 8.65 m, Width - 101.00 m
20. Donaustauf Bridge (2369.640 km): Clearance Height - 8.75 m, Width - 101.75 m
21. Wörth Highway Bridge (2358.260 km): Clearance Height - 8.10 m, Width - 138.45 m

 

Straubing Section

 

22. Pfatter Bridge (2353.320 km): Clearance Height - 7.35 m, Width - 85.35 m
23. Straubing Bridge (2321.820 km): Clearance Height - 8.30 m, Width - Chamber Width

Kachlet Section

24. Agnes-Bernauer Bridge (2320.000 km): Clearance Height - 8.85 m, Width - 66.55 m
25. Reibersdorf Bridge (2316.980 km): Clearance Height - 8.85 m, Width - 71.90 m
26. Bogen Railway Bridge (2311.270 km): Clearance Height - 5.00 m, Width - 43.95 m
27. Bogen Bridge (2308.400 km): Clearance Height - 9.00 m, Width - 75.10 m
28. Metten Highway Bridge (2290.120 km): Clearance Height - 8.60 m, Width - 71.40 m
29. Deggendorf Railway Bridge (2285.890 km): Clearance Height - 8.60 m, Width - 88.00 m
30. Deggendorf Pedestrian and Bike Bridge (2285.870 km): Clearance Height - 8.75 m, Width - 88.00 m
31. Fischerdorf Highway Bridge (2285.490 km): Clearance Height - 8.40 m, Width - 89.85 m
32. Deggenau Bridge (2284.590 km): Clearance Height - 9.65 m, Width - 82.90 m
33. Winzer Bridge (2266.230 km): Clearance Height - 8.60 m, Width - 62.00 m
34. Vilshofen Bridge (2249.160 km): Clearance Height - 8.00 m, Width - 89.00 m
35. Schalding Highway Bridge (2234.260 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 100.15 m
36. Kachlet Cable Bridge (2230.630 km): Clearance Height - 8.50 m, Width - Chamber Width
37. Kachlet Lock Bridge (2230.415 km): Clearance Height - 9.40 m, Width - Chamber Width
38. Steinbach Railway Bridge (2230.280 km): Clearance Height - 6.30 m, Width - 59.20 m
39. Franz-Josef-Straub Bridge (2230.100 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 67.00 m
40. Schanzl Bridge (2226.960 km): Clearance Height - 7.70 m, Width - 101.00 m
41. Luitpold Bridge (2225.750 km): Clearance Height - 5.15 m, Width - 80.55 m
42. Kräutelstein Railway Bridge (Downstream) (2223.280 km): Clearance Height - 9.50 m, Width - 92.00 m
43. Kräutelstein Railway Bridge (Upstream) (2223.280 km): Clearance Height - 9.50 m, Width - 71.00 m
44. Jochenstein Material Transport Bridge (2203.310 km): Clearance Height - 7.70 m, Width - Chamber Width

[notamermaid]

It depends on the superstructure of your ship and where you are when the level has risen. Yes, the bridge near Bogen will be the bigger issue depending on your time frame. All the best.

 

3 hours ago, Yorkieboy1972 said:

I’ve just spoken to the driver and our issue isn’t Passau because we can pass with 7m level. He says our problem is at Bogen.

 

Passau gauge is now at 632cm, time stamp 18.00 hours local time.

 

Thank you for explaining the bridges, folks.

 

Much water coming from the Upper Danube, critical situation in some areas.

 

Forecast for Regensburg:

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Yorkieboy1972]

29 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

It depends on the superstructure of your ship and where you are when the level has risen. Yes, the bridge near Bogen will be the bigger issue depending on your time frame. All the best.

 

 

Passau gauge is now at 632cm, time stamp 18.00 hours local time.

 

Thank you for explaining the bridges, folks.

 

Much water coming from the Upper Danube, critical situation in some areas.

 

Forecast for Regensburg:

 

notamermaid

 

 

They’ve flattened the top deck. I’m hoping this is a good sign. The crew are talking about leaving Aschach ASAP and sailing straight through to Regensburg.

[Yorkieboy1972]

I’m guessing this will be like trying to empty a bath with a thimble?

[notamermaid]

8 minutes ago, Yorkieboy1972 said:

They’ve flattened the top deck. I’m hoping this is a good sign. The crew are talking about leaving Aschach ASAP and sailing straight through to Regensburg.

Crossing my fingers for the run to Regensburg. Flattening the top deck will certainly be helpful under the bridges and could do the trick. By the way, the bridges on the Canal and on the Main are so low that they do this there as standard.

 

Forgot to mention that the ship can be made to sit deeper in the water by giving it extra ballast. Adds to the headroom. You have 70cm extra at Passau, great! Going upstream you will get to Bogen later which they say is the second worst bridge generally.

 

notamermaid

 

[DocHifi]

I have attached a downloadable PDF with bridge info and map links.

For anyone taking the Viking Romantic Danube river cruise from Regensburg and Budapest, here are the bridges that span the Danube River between Regensburg and Budapest:

1. Sinzing Highway Bridge
2. Sinzing Railway and Pedestrian Bridge
3. Mariator Railway Bridge
4. Pfaffenstein Highway Bridge
5. Pfaffenstein Pedestrian and Bike Bridge
6. Oberpfalz Bridge
7. Protzenweither Bridge
8. Iron Bridge
9. Nibelungen Bridge (South)
10. Nibelungen Bridge (North)
11. Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Downstream)
12. Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Upstream)
13. Schwabelweis Road Bridge
14. Donaustauf Bridge
15. Wörth Highway Bridge
16. Pratter Bridge
17. Straubing Bridge (Donaubrucke Straubing)
18. Agnes-Bernauer Bridge
19. Reibersdorf Bridge
20. Bogen Railway Bridge
21. Bogen Bridge (Maver Hafner Bridge)
22. Metten Highway Bridge
23. Deggendorf Pedestrian and Bike Bridge
24. Donausteg Deggendorf
25. Fiecherldor Highway Bridge
26. Deggenau Bridge
27. Winzer Bridge (Danube Forest Bridge)
28. Vilshofen Bridge (Marienbrücke)
29. Schalding Highway Bridge
30. Kachlet Cable Bridge
31. Kachlet Lock Bridge
32. Steinbach Railway Bridge
33. Franz-Josef-Straub Bridge
34. Schanel Bridge
35. Luitpold Bridge
36. Kräubelstein Railway Bridge (Downstream)
37. Kräubelstein Railway Bridge (Upstream)
38. Jochenstein Material Transport Bridge

Danube_Bridge_Clearance_Heights_Widths.pdf

[Host Jazzbeau]

12 minutes ago, DocHifi said:

I have attached a downloadable PDF with bridge info and map links.

Sadly, attaching PDFs doesn't seem to work on Cruise Critic.  Can you reformat it as a PNG or JPG?

[notamermaid]

Currently a barge is travelling upstream which is "carrying" a special precious cargo, another river cruise ship hull. The "NB212" has come from Kladovo and will be taken to the Netherlands. Looks like the transport will be delayed. Okay, no need to flatten the top deck with this ship - it has no functioning wheelhouse yet. Still, the river level may well prove to be too high.

 

notamermaid