RIVER PIPING
A river used to meander through the meadows east of Lemvig. In 1910, this river was the first to be laid in a casing. After that, urban development continued on the former meadows in the area that is now Enghavevej. In the 1960s, this part of the city was hit by severe flooding as a result of heavy rainfall and high water levels in the fjord. In 1969, the capacity of the piping was quadrupled to 20,000 m3/h, which was fitted with a modern non-return valve at the outlet. The current casing is in a 643 m long concrete pipe with a diameter of 200 cm.
The piping drains the town of Lemvig and Lemvig Sødal, a total of 1033 ha including 57 ha of roads and roof areas. On an annual basis, 3,000,000 m3 of rainwater run through the piping.
In November 1981, the west coast of Denmark and the Limfjord were hit by a violent storm. The storm surge in Lemvig was accompanied by heavy, long-lasting precipitation. In the period 19.-28. November, i.e. for 10 days, almost 700,000 m3 of water flowed over the small river Skødbækken and others. into the Lemvig Lake. The high water level in the fjord blocked the backflow preventer of the outlet to the fjord, causing the town of Lemvig to experience flooding again.
The storm and rain surge of November 1981 and an expected future with more precipitation and a rising water level in the fjord make it necessary to switch from passive to active climate protection. The current backflow preventer in the outlet prevents storm surges in Lemvig, but what about the rain in the hinterland? In the future, the amount of rain in Skødbækken will be pumped into the fjord via a powerful pumping station in the port of Lemvig.