Serbia Expanding Waterway on the Sava Near Republika Srpska Border

The Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure of Serbia has filed the request for determining the scope and the contents of the Study of the environmental impact assessment of the project of the development of the Sava River through the excavation of the material from the river bed along the waterway and construction.

According to the document, prepared by the Jaroslav Cerni Institute, the Republic of Serbia plans to improve the navigation conditions on the Sava River in order to further develop water traffic and improve the conditions for the traffic of goods and people.

The works are planned on the section between the 170th and the 188th, where the Sava creates the natural border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska entity.

The aim of the works is to secure navigation conditions on the Sava waterway as proscribed by the International Sava River Basin Commission, which should be at least in line with the request for class IV of inland waterways, whereas, at the moment, the section between the 176th and the 188th km belongs to the 3rd category of waterways.

That is why, it is said, on the entire section, category IV waterway has to be secured.

Three options for hydrotechnical works that are to be done to achieve this had been considered, and the third one was adopted as the optimal one. It entails the construction of water structures at the most critical sections, along with the dredging of sandbanks on the waterway on shorter sections upstream and downstream.

This option entails the forming of a river bed with a width of 180 m at the EN level (low navigation level), which is achieved through the dredging of sandbanks on the waterway and the establishment of water structures along the left and the right banks of the Sava.

The dredging of the bed at several shorter section upstream from the bridge in Sremska Raca, at the confluence of the Drina and on the downstream section of the Sava is planned as well.

These works, it is noted, are not the subject of the preliminary design. Instead, they will be developed in special Studies of the dredging of the waterway.

As a part of the planned works on the right bank of the Sava is located in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, Republika Srpska, a special agreement has been signed between the two countries.

The investor in the project is the European Investment Bank.

B. P.

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

Evropska investiciona banka EIB

Sava river

Republika Srpska border

waterway

expansion

dredging

water structures

construction