Studies for waterway network upgrade in France

Following the construction of the Seine-Nord Europe canal, the French waterway authority Voies Navigables de France (VNF) investigates the need of upgrading its waterway network in order to cope with a foreseen traffic increase.

VNF has selected International Marine and Dredging Consultants (IMDC), a company of Tractebel, for two four-year framework contracts for traffic capacity and nautical trajectory studies on the 240 km long network.

The first contract aims at developing and using a state of the art capacity model for inland navigation. The model evaluates the effect of economic development scenarios, management policies and recalibration measures on parameters such as transit and waiting times, transported volumes, lock operations and water use in order to prioritise investments.

The second framework contract aims at identifying and justifying low cost measures for the recalibration based on real-time nautical trajectory studies. The study is done in collaboration with Flanders Hydraulics Research.

Both studies are expected to create significant added value and further promote low carbon fluvial transport.

Find out more about IMDC on www.imdc.be

© The image used to illustrate this article is a courtesy of Flanders Hydraulic Research