The people at the Upper Austrian company of Hydro-Construct GmbH are no strangers to the breaking of records – especially considering the sheer dimensions of their flexible weir – the inflatable dam.

As compared with conventional closures, the advantage of this system is in its usefulness for regulating the damming of broad rivers, negating the need for any solid engineering insertions on sections of the natural run of the river. At a width of 265 m and a height of 2.3 m, Hydro-Construct implemented the largest inflatable dam in Europe in Albania in 2012, and in 2017 they installed the broadest inflatable dam in the whole of India in Uttar Pradesh at a width of 270 m and a height of 3.2 m. These tube dams were made in Upper Austria and can hold back flows up to a depth of 4.5 m. The dimensions have already been used for single-field set-ups in Turkey and France, and the system is now being implemented as a 4-field dam in Casale Monferato. The total span of 200 m is divided into 4 x 50 m sections, at a regulation depth of 4.3 m – a European width-closure record.