Carolabrücke (Dresden)

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Carolabrücke, view up the Elbe, 2011
Old town driveway to the Carolabrücke under construction (1971)
Opening of today's bridge on July 4, 1971 (view of the old town)

The Carolabrücke is one of the four Elbe bridges in Dresden city ​​center. It is bounded in the south in the old town by the Rathenauplatz and in the north in the Innere Neustadt by the Carolaplatz .

It is named after Carola von Wasa-Holstein-Gottorp (1833–1907), the wife of King Albert . From 1971 to 1991 the bridge was named Dr.-Rudolf-Friedrichs-Brücke after the Saxon Prime Minister and Dresden Mayor Rudolf Friedrichs . On the downstream side of the old town abutment there is a name plaque to this day.

First Carolabrücke (1892–1945)

Driveway to the Carolabrücke around 1900
The first Carolabrücke during the Elbe floods in 1932

The first bridge was built between 1892 and 1895 under Karl Manck and Hermann Klette . The 340 meter long structure was designed for a 9.6 meter wide carriageway with a double-track tram route and 3.2 meter wide sidewalks on both sides. The bridge construction had two pillars and three stream openings in the Elbe . Six full-walled iron arches each spanned the stream openings with clear widths of 61.0 meters in the middle arch and 59.0 meters in the two adjacent arches and a low arrow ratio of only about 1:14. In the foreland area there were two brick vault openings on the left bank and four on the other side.

On the evening of May 7, 1945, one day before the end of the Second World War in Germany, units of the Waffen-SS blew up two arches of the river openings and two foreland arches on the right bank of the Elbe in front of the Red Army advancing from Albertplatz . Due to the severe destruction, it was not rebuilt in its old form. In 1952 other preserved parts were dismantled. On March 7, 1952, the remaining arches were blown up. The two central pillars in the river were only removed when the second Carolabrücke was built at the end of the 1960s.

Second Carolabrücke (1967 – today)

Remnants of bridges and terraced banks in 1952

The current structure was built from 1967 to 1971 by VEB Brückenbau Dresden . The bridge carries four lanes of national highway 170 and a separate track body of the tram the most important north-south link in the Dresden road transport, to the north in the Albert Street continues.

In 2003, the city council counted around 53,000 vehicles crossing the bridge every day. At that time, the B 170 still carried long-distance traffic between Autobahn 4 and the Czech border in Zinnwald through the city center. Since the end of 2004, long-distance traffic has been routed around the city via the A17 , which is why the load has decreased.

The bridge is 32 meters wide and consists of three superstructures. They are prestressed concrete box girder bridges with the Gerber girder as a structural system in the longitudinal direction. With only one river pillar left , the spans in the southern edge field are 44 meters and in the first inner field 58 meters. The Elbe is bridged with 120 meters and 95 meters, the northern end span spans 58 meters. The haunched bridge above the river pillar was the prestressed concrete bridge with the largest span in the GDR . The smallest passage height is 6.61 meters at the highest navigable water level.

Traffic load
  • 2003: 53,000 vehicles / 24h
  • 2009: 45,000 vehicles / 24h
  • 2015: 47,250 vehicles / 24h
  • 2016: 40,000 vehicles / 24h

Refurbishment measures from 2019

Remnants of bridges and terraced banks in 1952

Although the structure of the bridge is in good condition, various maintenance measures will be required from the end of 2019. In addition, the lane equipment and design should be adapted to current usage requirements. When renovating the Carolabrücke, wider footpaths and bicycle paths are to be built. However, the existing bridge cross-section is not sufficient, which is why the caps are widened accordingly.

Prefabricated parts made of carbon concrete for widening the Carolabrücke
Repair measures for the Carolabrücke in June 2020. To widen the pedestrian and cycle paths, prefabricated parts made of carbon concrete are used

Carbon concrete is being used for the first time in large bridge construction. The non-metallic carbon reinforcement in connection with concrete opens up new possibilities for bridge renovation as a lighter and more flexible material composite compared to reinforced concrete . The material makes it possible to widen the footpath and cycle path from 3.60 meters to 4.25 meters. This would not be possible with conventional materials for structural reasons. In cooperation with the TU Dresden , carbon concrete is to be established in the construction industry. The use on the Carolabrücke is a pilot project that aims to highlight the advantages of non-metallic reinforcement and highlight Dresden as an innovation location. In addition to the carbon concrete, the installation of basalt reinforcement is also being tested. It is planned that the bridge cap of arch A will be built from one bank to the middle of the bridge with carbon concrete and the second half to the other bank with basalt concrete.

Sculptures

Figures on the southern bridgehead depicting the calm and the agitated Elbe

The two allegorical groups of figures "moving Elbe" ( Triton swings his club while hunting over the waves) and "calm Elbe" ( Nereide rides over calm water) on the old town side of the Carolabrücke were created in 1907 by the Dresden sculptor Friedrich Offermann from sandstone. The bronze panels and crowns attached to the base were removed in 1946. When the bridge was rebuilt, the bases were filled in by a third.

literature

  • Erich Fiedler: Road bridges over the Elbe . Saxoprint, Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-9808879-6-0 .
  • Erich Fiedler: Bridges of City Expansion. Albertbrücke - Carolabrücke - Flügelwegbrücke. In: Dresdner Geschichtsverein eV (Ed.): Dresdner Elbbrücken in eight centuries , Dresdner Hefte No. 94, Dresden 2008, pp. 51–60

Web links

Commons : Carolabrücke  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. 2009 census, 2020 forecast and 2025 forecast ( Memento from May 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 12 kB)
  2. a b Flügelwegbrücke is in front , Dresdner Latest News from February 25/26, 2017
  3. ^ Dresden: Carolabrücke gets wider bike and sidewalk. Retrieved June 26, 2020 .
  4. ^ Art in public space. Dresden Cultural Office, Dresden 1996.
upstream Bridges over the Elbe downstream
Albert Bridge Carolabrücke (Dresden)
Augustus Bridge

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 14 "  N , 13 ° 44 ′ 50"  E