It takes specially trained teams to remove unexploded ammunition

The challenging and risky activities of searching the Danube River bed and removing unexploded mines, leftover from NATO intervention in 1999, began on February 27th, 2002 near Novi Sad. The city, one of the most beautiful towns in northern Serbia, is situated on the banks of the second largest river in Europe.
Following an international tender for the cleaning of the Danube, the Danube Commission from Budapest signed agreements with the foreign and domestic firms hired for the job. Five projects were agreed upon: removal of the unexploded ammunition, removal of the remnants of three destroyed bridges – the Sloboda, Zezeljev and Petrovaradinski – and the future regulation of the Danube bed.
Removal of the unexploded ammunition is to be carried out by the Belgrade firm PMC INZENJERING, which is part of the Serbian company JUGOIMPORT-SDPR. The works are valued at 1,8 million euros. Specially trained teams on boats, divers and pyrotechnist began combing about 300 hectars of the river. The area starts from about 150 meters up the stream from the Sloboda bridge, ending about 150 meters down stream from the Zezeljev bridge. The Danish-Hungarian consortium COWI-Utiber estimated that there are at least eight unexploded mines in the area. They should be located, deactivated, removed from the Danube and transported to testing ground in Nikinci and Centa (both in Serbia) for destruction. So, the mines will not be destroyed while on the river bed, unless presenting an excessive risk. The teams will get technological assistance in their dangerous work from the robot ROMAN, made by the Swedish firm INVO AB. ROMAN is guided by remote control, weighs eight tons, and has spider-like legs, that reach up to 14 meters. The robot is capable of doing the most dangerous and complicated tasks.

 

Specialists at work

 

A prayer for peace.

The team of 25 experienced divers and demolitionists is led by Colonel Slobodan Jovanovic, who has long been doing this work in which you can make a mistake only once, for a long time. As Jovanovic told, in the last three years - during and after the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia - his team has deactivated 3,500 mines.
The most dangerous phase of the project – the cleaning of the Danube at Novi Sad – is scheduled to last 70 days. It will be supervised by the Swedish Army’s Deactivating Center (SWEDEC).
The removal of damaged parts of the Sloboda bridge should begin began in early April. The whole bridge should has to be taken out of the Danube and disassembled in 180 days. The job, valued at 3,075 million euros, is contracted with the Belgrade firm MOSTOGRADNJA, according to Zivko Vujanic, building construction engineer and President of GP MOSTOGRADNJA AD.
According to preliminary estimates, about 3,300 tons of the steel construction has to be lifted out of the Danube and taken apart. About 600 tons should be recycled and reused in the construction of the new bridge, while unusable parts are to be transported to the steel-works in Smederevo (Serbia) and melted down. About 85 percent of costs for the Danube cleaning is to be covered by the European Union. The remains of the Zezeljev bridge is to be removed by teams from the Belgian-Dutch-Serbian consortium, including HEROJ PINKI, a company from Novi Sad. This part of the project is valued at 7,1 million euros. The major part of the Zezeljev bridge is to remain submerged on the bottom of the Danube, where the heavy bridge made a 27-meter-deep hole. Parts of the bridge weighing up to 1,5 tons are to be cut into smaller parts and then laid in the hole, while pieces bigger than one meter will be taken out. The removal of the third, Varadinski bridge, will cost about 700,000 euros.
According to the schedule, the cleaning of the Danube should be completed in October 2002. Reconstruction of the Sloboda bridge will be carried out simultaneously, with the financial help of the European Union. The bridge should be completed in autumn 2004. Until then, the existing pontoon bridge will be used, which will normally open to allow river traffic three times a week (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays) and more frequently during the high navigation season, according to the Yugoslav federal authorities.
This comprehensive, dangerous and expensive cleaning of the Danube will enable resumption and normalization of the international river traffic on the segment of the biggest European river passing through Yugoslavia .
After suffering a loss of about one billion euros over the last three years, the freight and passenger traffic on the Danube will flow once again.