Golling Salzach power plant: No traffic through town centre

On Friday 21 November 2025, project operators VERBUND and Salzburg AG once again invited people to Golling high school to find out more about the current planning status of the planned Golling power plant on the Salzach River. More than a hundred residents of Golling accepted the invitation and took the opportunity to look at the submission documents for the Golling Salzach power plant, which are now available in full. The third Energy Dialogue focused on “protecting people” and covered a number of topics including traffic, noise, air and climate protection.

At the third Energy Dialogue in Golling, VERBUND and Salzburg AG presented all the confirmed and final investigation findings in the now fully available set of submission documents for the Golling Salzach power plant project. The project will be submitted for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) at the turn of the year. Attendees were able to gain a comprehensive overview of the traffic situation during the construction work and of the current status of emissions and immissions. Based on the current planning status, project partners VERBUND and Salzburg AG expect the construction phase to last approximately four years.

Measures to prevent and reduce environmental impacts

“The project partners are very keen to keep disruption for local residents and people in Golling to a minimum throughout the construction period. Therefore, in our planning we focused in particular on optimising traffic management and substantially minimising emissions and immissions generated by the construction work,” said Hannes Badura, VERBUND project manager. To limit dust, noise and light emissions, for example, a four-metre-high immission barrier will be erected in the Kaindl area. This is specifically designed for the construction phase and intended to reduce disruption.

Recycling of materials on site

To reduce construction traffic and thus both emissions and immissions, care was taken during the planning phase to ensure that any excavated materials are recycled on site wherever possible. The excavated and extracted material comprises around 600,000 m³, with more than half to be recycled on site. Fifteen percent will be used within the project for backfilling and terrain adjustments. Forty percent will go into the Leube company’s materials cycle.

No lorries through the town centre

“Particular attention was also paid to managing traffic throughout the construction phase. There were a number of discussions, votes and project optimisations aimed at taking the interests of Golling residents into account as effectively as possible. Ultimately, solutions were found that ruled out lorry transports through the centre of the market town,” explained Thomas Lebesmühlbacher, deputy project manager at Salzburg AG. A lorry turn will be created at the junction of the B159 into Taggerstraße. A significant amount of the mass transports will take place underground through the newly built headrace tunnel without using public roads. Therefore, there will be no negative impact on public roads in the Golling area.

Overview of measures to protect the population (protecting people)

General

• No construction traffic through Golling: mass transports (especially weir construction site) to the junction. Pass Lueg or along the B159 to the temporary excavated material landfill site.
• Materials recycled on site where possible (LEUBE), mass transports through the tunnel.
• Consideration of sensitive times in construction scheduling (working hours: no noisy work after 7:00 p.m., Saturday after 12:00 p.m.; outside of these times, only work that is absolutely necessary for the tunnel excavation)
• Erection of a four-metre-high immission barrier along the Salzach River.
• Construction-related speed limit at Taggerstraße/B159 intersection.

Traffic

• Turning option for lorries at Taggerstraße.
• Reduction of construction traffic in the main cycling season (May to September) in the core cycling period (10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.).
• Ensuring existing alternative routes.

Noise & vibrations

• No construction-related traffic to the Golling junction or into the Golling local area.
• Use of only low-noise lorries for transport journeys.
• Acoustic testing (sound measurements during the construction phase) at defined locations.
• Blasting at the tunnel access areas only during the day.

Air pollution protection

• Paving/asphalting of construction routes.
• Regular wet cleaning of construction routes.
• Watering of dusty construction areas.
• Installation of tyre washing facilities at construction site exits.
• Greening of temporary storage facilities.
• Material transports only in an earth-moist state or with covered loading area.
• Emissions standard for construction equipment min. MOT-V stage IV, for lorries min. EURO 6.

Start of the EIA procedure – submission of environmental impact statement

Project partners VERBUND and Salzburg AG plan to submit the environmental impact statement around the turn of the year, which starts the approval process (EIA process). As the first step, the regulatory authority checks the comprehensive documentation for completeness.

VERBUND project manager Hannes Badura said: “Over the past two-and-a-half years of planning, we have developed a coherent and, in our view, environmentally sound project. We are therefore optimistic about the upcoming EIA process. For us, the many constructive discussions held on an equal footing with residents, the community, landowners and stakeholders were very instructive and provided the basis for collaborative project development. After receiving positive feedback as well, the entire project team is already looking forward to the next stage of the Golling Salzach power plant.”