Freudenau harbor bridge

The Freudenauer Hafenbrücke, seen downstream: the harbor entrance on the left, the Danube Canal on the right

The Freudenauer Hafenbrücke is a road bridge in Vienna and, with a span of 352 m and 15 m width, crosses the entrance to the Freudenauer Hafen , also known as the Winterhafen , and the Danube Canal , about 1.4 km from its confluence with the Danube . It connects the port area in the 2nd district, Leopoldstadt , with the 11th district, Simmering , or its districts Kaiserebersdorf and Albern .

location

To the north of the bridge is the Freudenau power plant , which was built in the Danube between 1992 and 1998 . To the southwest of the bridge, on the right bank of the Danube Canal, are the main sewage treatment plant Simmering and the former Kaiserebersdorfer Landwehr artillery barracks .

Down the river immediately next to the previous bridge there was a railway bridge until 1945. It was rebuilt more than sixty years later as the Winterhafenbrücke, opened at the end of 2008, and connects the Donauuferbahn in the 2nd district with the Donauländebahn in the 11th district.

In addition to the port and Danube Canal in the 11th district, the Freudenauer Hafenbrücke crosses the Simmeringer Lände , the Alberner port access road and ÖBB siding. The southern bridge exit leads into Zinnergasse in Kaiserebersdorf.

Until the Winterhafenbrücke was rebuilt, it was the southeasternmost and last bridge over the Danube Canal.

history

1927-1945

According to historical city plans, there was no road bridge here before 1927. In 1926 the Friedensbrücke was opened, which connects the 9th and 20th district. Its predecessor, the Brigittabrücke, was subsequently dismantled and allegedly rebuilt in 1927 on the site of today's Freudenauer Hafenbrücke; however, the process could not be verified. B. in Lehmann's Vienna address book 1931 in the bridge lists. The location was then in the Soviet sector of Vienna until 1955 .

1956 – today

From a public tender with nine participants and 24 designs, the Vienna city administration selected the construction company Mayreder, Kraus & Co to erect the building. Architect DI Hermann Kutschera was the architectural consultant . The construction should be carried out in prestressed concrete according to the Dywidag system. The free porch was used for the first time in Austria for the 89-meter-long central structure of the three-span bridge . The length of the porch sections was three meters each.

On October 28, 1957, city hall correspondence reported the visit to the bridge construction site by Mayor Franz Jonas . The stress test of the bridge took place on October 17, 1958 . The load capacity was tested using 28 gravel-laden trucks (total weight 320,000 kilograms). On December 13, 1958, the mayor opened the bridge, which saved a 15-kilometer detour over the stadium bridge when traveling from Freudenauer to Alberner Hafen .

Until the completion of the motorway connection to the airport (today the A4 Ostautobahn ) in 1982, the Freudenauer Hafenbrücke was part of a popular secret route from the city center to Vienna Airport . Instead of a long drive through the densely built-up area around Rennweg and Simmeringer Hauptstraße (3rd and 11th district), the route chosen was via Handelskai (2nd district), Hafenbrücke, Albern and Mannswörth to Pressburger Straße (B9).

Today the bridge is used by bus line 80B, which connects the Krieau underground station at Messe Wien in the 2nd district with Kaiserebersdorf ( tram line 71 ) in the 11th district and has its terminus there on Münnichplatz.

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 1: A – Da. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , p. 464 (keyword Brigittabrücke).
• Felix Czeike: Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 2: De-Gy. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-218-00544-2 , p. 399.
• Alfred Pauser: Bridges in Vienna. A guide through building history. Springer Verlag, Vienna et al. 2005, ISBN 3-211-25255-X .

Coordinates: 48 ° 10 ′ 18 ″  N , 16 ° 28 ′ 46 ″  E