Cologne-Heumar motorway triangle

Cologne-Heumar motorway triangle
map
location
Country:	Germany
State :	North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates:	50 ° 55 '23 "  N , 7 ° 3' 39"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 55 '23 "  N , 7 ° 3' 39"  E
Height:	50  m above sea level NN
Basic data
Design type:	Spaghetti knot / mixed form
Bridges:	8 (motorway) / 7 (other)
Construction year:	1941
Last modification:	1982

The triangle Köln-Heumar (abbreviation: AD Köln-Heumar , formerly Heumarer Dreieck or Dreieck Heumar ) is a motorway junction in North Rhine-Westphalia , which is located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region . It connects the A 3 ( Oberhausen - Frankfurt am Main - Passau ), A 4 ( Aachen - Erfurt - Dresden ) and A 59 ( Duisburg - Bonn ) motorways .

geography

The cross is located in the area of ​​the city of Cologne , near the districts of Rath and Heumar . It is located about 5 km east of Cologne city center and about 20 km north of Bonn. The cross forms the south-eastern edge of the Cologne motorway ring .

The Köln-Heumar triangle is number 28 on Autobahn 3, number 15 on A 4 and number 38 on A 59.

history

The Cologne-Heumar triangle was completed in 1941 to connect the A 4 to the A 3 from the west. In 1982 the A 59 was also connected. Although it has since resembled a motorway junction, it has the "triangle" in its name.

Formally, it is a mixed form, since the A 59 is only linked to the A 3 (north), a change from or to the A 3 (south) or A 4 (west) is not possible.

Development status and planning

The motorway intersection is a kind of giant TOTSO intersection. The A 3 / A 4 running north has eight lanes, the A 3 in the southeast and the A 4 in the west have six lanes and the A 59 has four lanes. All connecting ramps , some of which lead over very complex bridge structures, have two lanes throughout and allow driving through at higher speeds. In order to cope with the high volume of traffic, the distribution lanes are also very generously dimensioned, so that on the A 3 and A 4 there are sometimes five-lane sections in each direction of travel.

Numerous roads and railway lines also run through the area of ​​the cross. To the north, the Rösrather Straße runs under the A 3 / A 4, to the west, the federal highway 8 crosses the A 4, the A 3 is crossed by a road and the A 59 leads to two 485 and 457 m long elevated carriageways as well as three smaller streets the airport loop of the high-speed line Cologne – Rhein / Main and the Aggertalbahn .

Since it has meanwhile been established that almost all bridge structures in the area of ​​the Heumar triangle have reached their load limits or their age or will soon reach them, and that the actually observed interweaving processes in the triangle no longer correspond to the structurally prescribed relationships, a generous conversion and expansion of the triangle is planned. DEGES has been commissioned with the implementation . The renovation and expansion of the triangle began in 2019 with the demolition of the bridge over Bundesstraße 8 and the provisional construction of a replacement bridge and is expected to be completed by 2029.

particularities

A special feature is that the A 59 is only connected to the northern branch of the A 3 / A 4 in both directions. Driving from the A 59 to the A 3 in a south-easterly or A 4 in a westerly direction is only possible in a detour via the Gremberg motorway junction or the Porz motorway triangle . It is therefore possible that the junction is only referred to as a “triangle”, although it has been an (incomplete) motorway junction since the early 1980s.

The A4 does not have a continuous guide. Both from the west and from the north (here together with the A3) it is necessary to turn off the main lane in order to stay on the A4 ( TOTSO ).

The Cologne-Heumar motorway triangle offers the following drive-through options:

From	Main road after	departure to
A 3 / A 4 north	A 3 southeast	A 4 west A 59 south
A 3 southeast	A 3 / A 4 north	A 4 west
A 59 south	A 3 / A 4 north	-
A 4 west	A 3 southeast	A 3 / A 4 north

traffic

Heavy traffic on the ramp before the confluence of the A 3 and A 4 in the direction of Leverkusen

The Cologne-Heumar triangle is one of the motorway junctions with the highest traffic volume in North Rhine-Westphalia, especially the eight-lane section to the Cologne-East junction , on which the A 3 and A 4 run together. The following traffic volumes were determined in traffic counts in 2005, 2010 and 2015:

Daily traffic volume

From	To	average			Share of heavy goods traffic
		2005	2010	2015	2005	2010	2015
AK Köln-Ost (A 3 / A 4)	Triangle Cologne-Heumar	144,400	166,100	171,200	12.1%	10.6%	12.8%
Triangle Cologne-Heumar	AS Königsforst (A 3)	92,500	94,300	99,500	12.5%	10.6%	11.2%
AK Köln-Gremberg (A 4)	Triangle Cologne-Heumar	73,800	80,700	96,800	13.5%	11.8%	15.9%
Triangle Cologne-Heumar	AS Köln-Rath (A 59)	53,800	63,500	60,900	9.2%	8.1%	9.1%

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Historical information at "autobahn online"
2. ↑ Development of the German motorway network
3. ↑ There are now concrete plans to expand the entire A 59 between Cologne-Porz and Bonn-Nordost to three lanes, sometimes even four lanes . (Information from the State Office for Road Construction NRW on the status and planning of the A 59; accessed on September 10, 2016)
4. ↑ As part of the preparations for the new construction of the Leverkusen Rhine bridge from 2017 in and around the Cologne motorway ring, the central structure in the triangle will also be renewed (information from the State Office for Road Construction North Rhine-Westphalia on construction site planning in the Cologne motorway ring; accessed September 10, 2016)
5. ↑ 240,000 cars every day by 2029: This woman saves Cologne's largest traffic jam In: Express . December 29, 2019, accessed December 29, 2019.
6. ↑ A 3 / A 4 / A 59: Conversion of the Heumar motorway triangle on the DEGES website , accessed on December 29, 2019.
7. ↑ Manual road traffic census 2005. (PDF) Results on federal motorways. BASt Statistics, 2005, accessed on November 30, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Manual road traffic census 2010. (PDF) Results on federal motorways. BASt Statistics, 2010, accessed on November 30, 2017 . 
9. ↑ Manual road traffic census 2015. (PDF) Results on federal motorways. BASt Statistics, 2015, accessed on November 30, 2017 .