Rivergate -
The Office Center on
the Banks of the Danube

In the 20th district of Vienna, a new office center with almost 50,000 m² floor space was established at the location of Handelskai no. 92. The project consists of two structures connected by an atrium.
The north-western part features nine, and the south-eastern part 13 storeys. This results in heights of 31 m and 45 m. The base area is 140 m x 60 m.
Parking space is provided on three under ground levels across the whole area.
The energy demand is met mainly by alternative sources.

For this project, BGG Consult was comissioned with the responsability of subsoil exploration. This included first of all the planning and the execution of the following tasks:

• Survey of existing exploration data
• Enquiries of the ground water situation from the city authorities and
  the Verbund-AHP (operator of the hydropower station)
• Percussion core drillings
• Dynamic probing
• Exploration pits
• Chemical analyses regarding contamination
• Soil-mechanics laboratory tests
• Pumping test
• Flowmeter test

Based on the obtained data, an expert’s report regarding the geotechnics and hydrogeology was compiled.

Use of alternative energy sources:
From the onset of the project, the client set a high value on an excellent building ecology. This included the use of alternative energy sources. BGG Consult scrutinized the feasability of several options (use of ground water, geothermal energy, water from Danube river and possible combinations). The site is situated within the effective area of the artificial ground water level control of the Freudenau Hydropower Station. Therefore, an intensive dialogue with the city authorities and with the operator of the power station was necessary from an early stage. For this purpose, numerical ground water model calculations were carried out.
Based on the results, documents were prepared for the application of the building permit and for permission pertaining water and waterways.

May 2008

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