The mountain village of Johnsbach was connected to the electricity grid in 1959 via an 8 km long overhead line from Admont Krumau. Now the line is being laid underground.
In the Gesäuse National Park, a few additional hectares will be given back to the wilderness. This is because the area under the power line road to Johnsbach no longer needs to be kept free of tree growth in future. Since the old line has to be renewed and runs through the National Park that has been created in the meantime, the energy supplier Envesta has decided to tackle the more expensive variant of an underground cable.
In this way, Envesta is making a significant contribution to nature and landscape conservation. "Both the section along the Johnsbach stream and the connecting network to the buildings in the local area of Johnsbach have already been laid underground, says Christoph Hell, Managing Director at Envesta. "The technically and financially more complex underground cabling over the Gofer and Langgriesriedel, i.e. over two mountain ridges with a trench in between, will be tackled in 2024. This will ensure a future-proof connection of the mountaineering village," Hell continues.
Underground cabling has clear advantages over an overhead line. Storms cannot damage the cable, which makes the power supply more secure and eliminates expensive maintenance work. In addition to the operator, nature is also happy: the permanent clearing for the line is no longer necessary, access roads can be abandoned, collisions of large birds with the line are avoided, flood protection in the Johnsbach valley increases with more forest cover and, last but not least, the naturalness of the landscape is improved.
Enquiry notice:
Gesäuse National Park, Andreas Hollinger, Tel: 0664 82 52 305
Envesta, Christoph Hell: 03613 2312 401
