Railway bridge (Basel)

Coordinates: 47 ° 33 ′ 29 "  N , 7 ° 36 ′ 52"  E ; CH1903:  613233  /  267497

Connecting railway bridge
Railway bridge, on the left the Black Forest bridge
use	Railway bridge, footpath
Convicted	Rhine
place	Basel
overall length	240 meters
Longest span	117.2 meters
location

The railway bridge with footpath spans the Rhine in the Swiss city ​​of Basel .

It is the heart of the Basel connecting railway , which connects the Badischer Bahnhof on the right bank of the Rhine with the Swiss Federal Railway Station and the SBB route network on the left bank of the Rhine. A large part of the passenger and freight traffic between the neighboring countries passes over this bridge , making this section part of one of the most important railway lines in Switzerland. Immediately to the west, the Black Forest Bridge on the A2 motorway was built between 1970 and 1973 .

First railway bridge

Initially in 1860 it was planned to run the tracks of the connecting railway together with a road as a Harzgraben bridge over the Rhine. However, this multi-purpose bridge failed due to the excessive costs and the enormous difficulties in coping with the resulting gradients and curves.

First bridge on the connecting railway during the First World War

After the Basel connecting railway was founded in 1869, an agreement was reached on the construction of a single - track truss girder bridge including a footbridge below the mouth of the Birs . The companies Lauterburg & Thormann ( pillars and abutments ) and Schneider & Cie. in Le Creusot (iron construction) began work in 1870. The piers were designed to be twice as wide in order to later accommodate a second girder bridge for the double-track expansion of the railway line. In November 1873 the bridge was opened to traffic. The 216.30 meter long bridge resting on three pillars had to be reinforced in 1896 and 1924 due to the use of heavy locomotives and trains. From 1913 onwards it became more and more urgent to expand the transition to double lane. The outbreak of the Second World War prevented the start of the expansion. On June 25, 1957, the SBB decided to build the new railway bridge using the old pillars. In 1962, the new double-track steel bridge , which has a box cross-section, was opened to traffic with the footpath attached down the Rhine. The spans are 48.24 meters for the two end spans and 59.42 meters for the two middle openings.

Second railway bridge

For the strongly increased north-south traffic it became necessary to build a second railway bridge over the Rhine. Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been talk of a structure further to the east, as a " bypass around the infarct-prone Basel". Ultimately, however, it was decided to build a construction right next to the existing bridge in order to be able to expand the connection to four lanes. This started on November 26th, 2009 and should be finished in December 2012. The inauguration took place on October 22, 2012. The second Rhine bridge is a three-span, approximately 240 meter long prestressed concrete structure . The span is 59.7 meters for the two end sections and 117.2 meters for the central opening. The new bridge has a barrier-free footpath. Following the construction, the existing bridge will be renovated by 2018. Including the route connections, the construction costs are estimated at 57 million francs. The project is financed by Article 23 of the performance agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) company for the years 2007 to 2010.

swell

1. ↑ SBB press release of November 26, 2009, starting shot to build bridges at the bend in the Rhine.  ( 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. ^ Eisenbahn-magazin 12/2012, p. 28
3. ↑ Eisenbahn-Revue International, 1/2010, p. 40
4. ↑ SBB media release of October 22, 2012 ( Memento of the original of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

See also

• Basel connecting railway

Web links

• Performance agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss Federal Railways Corporation (PDF file; 507 kB)
• Message on the performance agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the SBB (PDF file; 1018 kB)

The next bridge upstream: Birsfelden power station

Bridges over the Rhine

The next bridge downstream: Black Forest Bridge