Aachen motorway junction

Aachen motorway junction
map
location
Country:	Germany
State :	North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates:	50 ° 48 '16 "  N , 6 ° 10' 14"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 48 '16 "  N , 6 ° 10' 14"  E
Height:	190  m above sea level NN
Basic data
Design type:	Shamrock and fork
Bridges:	3 (motorway) / 2 (other)
Construction year:	1970 (western part) 1963 (eastern part)
Last modification:	since 2009
The Aachen junction from Cologne

The Aachen motorway junction (abbreviation: AK Aachen ; short form: Kreuz Aachen ) is a motorway junction in Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia . It connects the federal highway 4 (Aachen - Eisenach - Görlitz ; E 40 , E 314 ) with the federal highway 44 (Aachen - Kassel ) and the federal highway 544 ( city ​​highway Aachen ).

geography

The motorway junction is located in the urban area of ​​Aachen, directly on the city limits to Würselen in the northeast and Eschweiler in the east. The closest districts are Verlautenheide , Sankt Jobs, Broichweiden and Nirm. It is located about 6 km northeast of Aachen city center, about 55 km west of Cologne and about 45 km southwest of Mönchengladbach .

All three autobahns begin a few kilometers west or southwest of the junction, which is why it happens to be uniformly designated with the number 4 on the A 4, A 44 and A 544 .

history

The history of the Aachener Kreuz and the intersecting motorways is changeable and begins in 1939 with the construction of the then A 15 as a connection between Cologne and Aachen, the section between Verlautenheide and Eschweiler (renamed Eschweiler-West in 2007 ) was completed in 1941. Until 1958 the route was extended to Europaplatz . The Aachener Kreuz was not created until 1963 with the construction of the A 201 in the direction of Belgium, which was released in 1964 to the Belgian border near Lichtenbusch , initially as a motorway triangle, but already expanded as a "clover leaf". In 1970 the section between the cross and the Dutch border near Vetschau was handed over to traffic as the A 71. The current A 544 was later renamed the A 75. At that time, the Aachen motorway junction consisted of two triangles. When the German autobahns were renamed in 1974, the A 71 and A 15 were renamed to today's A4, the A 201 to the A 44 and the A 75 to the A 580 and later to the A 544. In 1975 the A 44 was extended beyond the Aachen junction in the direction of Mönchengladbach.

State of development

Bridge of the motorway junction before the renovation work

Scheme of the Aachen motorway junction after completion of the expansion and renovation work started in September 2009 (expected at the end of 2020)

All motorways have four lanes in the area of ​​the cross. The direct connecting ramps and the parallel lanes of the A 4 have two lanes, as is the tangent from the A 44 from Krefeld to the A 4 towards the Netherlands. All other ramps are single-lane.

This system is no longer appropriate for today's traffic, especially in the morning and afternoon. Traffic jams and accidents are increasing. In order to cope better with the main traffic flows and to reduce the high number of accidents, the cross is currently being rebuilt and expanded. The start of construction was originally planned for summer 2007, but had to be postponed due to the lack of agricultural compensation areas.

Aerial view of the Aachener Kreuz during the construction work in September 2011

The expansion of the cross began on September 18, 2009 and is expected to last until the end of 2020. The financing of the construction costs estimated at around € 75 million could ultimately be secured with funds from the economic stimulus package II . The renovation was originally supposed to be completed in 2015, but follow-up examinations revealed that the connecting bridge from the A4 from the Netherlands via the A544 (high-flyer) also had to be renewed.

After the renovation, which will take place in seven construction phases, several additional bridges and underpasses will enable a faster and easier change of motorway. The main axis (east-west) will be expanded from ten to 17 lanes. In addition, noise protection is being expanded to a considerable extent. In addition, as part of the renewal of the Aachen AK, the A 44 between the motorway junction and the Broichweiden exit will be extended to six lanes.

The L 23 (Verlautenheidener Straße) located at the Würselen junction is to be relocated to the east as a bypass of Verlautenheide and to cross the motorway junction between the western and eastern parts.

particularities

What is referred to as the Aachen motorway junction is actually a motorway pentagon with two separate traffic junctions: a classic "clover-leaf cross" on the A 4 / A 44 and a motorway fork on the A 4 / A 544. Despite the convergence of five motorway strands, were only two bridges were necessary to connect them in the 1960s. However, this has changed with the recent expansion, as additional bridges had to be built for this.

There is no direct connection between the A 544 and the western part of the A 4 from and towards the Netherlands . This can only be created by “turning” the eastern part of the cross, which is designed as a “clover leaf”. To do this, follow the direction sign "Europaplatz". (A direction sign "Würselen" coming from east-west is not available here (in June 2017).) This means that the Würselen junction , which is only a few hundred meters southwest on the A 544 from the Netherlands, can only be used via this detour. A corresponding semi-junction with a connection from the L23 / K30 roundabout to the A 4 is being considered, but is not included in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030.

In order to continue on the A 4 from Cologne towards the border, it was necessary to change to the parallel lane at the eastern part of the Aachen junction before the conversion, before it separates from the main lane after 1,400 m on the western part. Since the parallel carriageway serves as a connection area to the A 44 or from this to the A 4 in the direction of the Netherlands and the A 544, it can still be used by traffic from Cologne in the direction of the Netherlands. After the renovation, traffic from Cologne has been able to use three lanes without junctions on the A4 towards the Netherlands since the beginning of 2017.

The “Aachener Kreuz” industrial park near Broichweiden and a hotel of the same name in Würselen are named after the motorway junction .

The two motorways 4 and 44 are expected to meet again in the Wommen triangle (37a) in the Werra-Meißner district of North Hesse near Herleshausen , about 370 km away from 2022 .

Connection points

	Broich pastures (A 44)
Aachen Center (A 4)		Service area Aachener Land and Eschweiler-West (A 4)
Würselen (A 544)	Aachen-Brand (A 44)

traffic

The Aachen junction is the central traffic junction in the Aachen city region, especially for the city of Aachen, as all the motorways that run through the city area meet here. For traffic between Belgium, northern France and the southern Netherlands in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region and the Rhine-Main area , the motorway junction is of enormous importance and accordingly heavily frequented. The cross is used by around 160,000 vehicles every day.

From	To	Average daily traffic volume	Share of heavy goods traffic
AS Aachen center (A 4)	AK Aachen	52,300	13.8%
AK Aachen	AS Eschweiler-West (A 4)	69,300	16.2%
AS Aachen-Brand (A 44)	AK Aachen	47,800	16.0%
AK Aachen	AS Broichweiden (A 44)	53,800	08.3%
AS Würselen (A 544)	AK Aachen	99,200	09.8%

Web links

• https://www.strassen.nrw.de/de/projekte/a4/autobahnkreuz-aachen-a4-a44-a544.html

Individual evidence

1. ^ AK Aachen. (No longer available online.) Autobahn intersections & Autobahn triangles in Germany, 2011, formerly in the original ; accessed on August 23, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ↑ Historical information at "autobahn online"
3. ↑ Development of the German motorway network
4. ^ Shell road map from 1958
5. ^ ADAC travel card 1966
6. ^ ADAC travel card 1972
7. ↑ autobahn-online.de: Compilation of the traffic clearances 1958
8. ↑ Autobahn junction Aachen - News | Streets.NRW. Retrieved April 10, 2017 . 
9. ↑ Straßen.NRW information on the condition and renovation of AK Aachen ( accessed September 19, 2016)
10. ↑ Berthold Strauch: Construction starts at the Aachener Kreuz Nadelöhr ( memento from July 28, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), In: Aachener Zeitung Online . September 15, 2009, accessed April 27, 2016.
11. ↑ Berthold Strauch (bst): Aachener Cross: jams the groundbreaking ceremony. In: Aachener Zeitung Online. September 18, 2009, accessed November 6, 2010 . 
12. ↑ State transport planning NRW, state road requirement plan 2006
13. ^ Mohne, Stephan u. Sander, Günther: Aachen: New junction can be planned. In: Aachener Nachrichten. February 25, 2016, accessed April 10, 2019 . 
14. ↑ Manual traffic census BAB 2010. (PDF; 336 kB) BASt Statistics, 2010, accessed on November 5, 2012 .