08 The Empress Amalia – Stollen

Stud Name:            "Empress Amalia - Stollen"

                                   Wife of Emperor Joseph I, married on February 24, 1699 in Vienna

Struck:            1687                           

Length:                         572 m

Altitude:                     851 m

The Empress Amalia tunnel was opened in 1687 in order to drive under the next upper Frauenholz tunnel and to be able to use the salt storage facility below.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The year the main shaft was expanded cannot be found, but this must not have happened long after the 18th century, because in 1725 several pumping works in these tunnels were already in use.                                                                       

In 1734, a collapse and water ingress occurred in the rear part of the Amalia tunnel - main shaft, which is why a conversion had to be made. The main shaft was then cleared out again and the water that had collapsed was drained back to the surface without causing any damage.

The great squeezing pressure of the poor Haselgebirge made it necessary to reinforce the carpentry of the routes. In order to limit the consumption of firewood, Oberamtrat Kner ordered it to be soaked in brine in 1796, as in Hallstatt in Ischl, for which purpose the brine room next to the mouth of the Amalia tunnel was used. This could hold 1000 stamping sticks, which were soaked in the brine for three months.

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Situation of the weirs in the Empress Amalia tunnel around 1800:

Length from the mouth hole to the salt boundary 496 Stabel (591.2m), from there to the field site 404 Stabel  4 hairpin bends with a total of 8 weirs, 4 of which are useless and 4 usable.

The hairpin bends originally laid out in these tunnels were mostly broken and abandoned quickly because of the enormous mountain pressure. In order to ensure access to the main shaft, complex conversion sections had to be created.

In 1839 the workers Preßel, Schwaiger, Rappan and Baron Sternbach suffered massive injuries in the Amalia tunnel. The mine workings that were still open had to be treated with particular care.

On May 11, 1843, Vasold Schurf (Amalia – on Elisabeth –  tunnel) to such an extent that the entire mining area was endangered. The massive inrush of water was a result of the collapse of the Erlach weir in the Frauenholz tunnel and the Mohr and Freund weir in the Elisabeth tunnel.

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As early as May 20, 1844, a commission made up of the most experienced miners of the Kammergut met to save the Ischler Salzberg, which was threatened with collapse.

At the suggestion of the commission, the area of the collapse was measured and a wooden model of the Ischler Salzberg was made.  The model showed that the waters descended from the Niederen Rosenkogel and could be intercepted by an extension from the Potie - Schurf (Neuberg - on Frauenholz - tunnel). After several unsuccessful attempts to build, the stormwater was finally managed in this way, it was caught and drained off harmlessly. The collapse rooms made accessible by the extension could be secured with numerous wooden support boxes.

The extension was occupied in three-thirds shifts and Häuer also came to help from Hallstatt. The incompletely collected waste water continued to leach out the collapsed Haselgebirge, which settled and with it the support boxes, which became detached from the ceiling and no longer served their purpose.

In 1845, an attempt was made to counteract the renewed threat of decline by filling in the cavern spaces with debris and quarry stones extracted from the surface. In addition, the search for the origin of the waste water hidden under the sinkhole continued with success.

The approximately 60m high Keeler rubble , including the horn sites, was extremely brittle and could only be secured by lining. For the same reason, in 1848 the fifth water extension in Neuberg - the tunnel and parts of the Amalia tunnel - had to be built into the main shaft.

Longer iron pipes made of cast iron pipes were laid for the first time on the Ischler Salzberg in the Keeler - rubble and in the Layer - conversion for the quick, safe drainage of the enormous amounts of stormwater.

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Another measure to reduce the water inflow from above ground was the construction of a widespread system of gutters and water catches in the area of the Reinfalzalm, which required constant maintenance and supervision.

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As a last measure, the water supply should be relocated to improve the leaching conditions in the weirs. The more rapid leaching of the weirs reduced the risk of factory overlaps. To do this, however, the amount of fresh water fed into the pit had to be increased significantly. In addition to the installation of iron pipes with larger cross-sections, a new water supply route from Bader - Schurf (Frauenholz - on Amalia - tunnel) via the Springer - Kehr, the Scharf - and Liska - conversion (Amalia - tunnel) to Vasold - Schurf (Amalia - on Elizabeth –  tunnels) have been planned. This was intended to enable the supply of larger amounts of water to the production workers and to drain the sections that had been soaked by the weeping wooden pipes. According to the decision of the Court Chamber, the procurement of the necessary iron pipes was to be spread over the years 1842, 1843 and 1844.

Those connecting structures that had become superfluous after the drainage pipe was relocated in 1842 were left open. These included the Niedere Wasserberg shaft and the water digging from the Niederen water tunnel to the Lipplesgraben tunnel, the rear Lipplesgraben and Johannes tunnel, some stretches in the Matthias and Neuberg tunnel and the Kößler conversion in the Frauenholz tunnel.

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