Horchheimer railway bridge

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Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 59 ″  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 39 ″  E

Horchheimer railway bridge
Horchheimer railway bridge
use railroad
Convicted Connection left with right Rhine route
Subjugated Rhine
place Koblenz
Entertained by Deutsche Bahn
construction Girder bridge
overall length 312 m
width 12.4 m
Longest span 113 m
start of building 1876
completion 1878
opening May 15, 1879
location
Horchheim Railway Bridge (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Horchheimer railway bridge
Map of the railway facilities in the greater Koblenz area
Koblenz Bahnanlagen.gif
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The Horchheimer Eisenbahnbrücke in Koblenz is a bridge over the Rhine between the districts of Oberwerth and Horchheim . It connects the left with the right Rhine route . The first bridge construction with two gate towers was put into operation in 1879. Today's railway bridge was built in 1961 after it was destroyed in the war.

history

Establishment

The Horchheim railway bridge after completion in 1880

The Horchheimer railway bridge over the Rhine and the Güls railway bridge over the Moselle , which was built almost at the same time, served to connect the Moselle route and the Kanonenbahn ( Berlin - Metz ). Construction of the railway bridge began in 1876 on behalf of the Prussian State Railways . The connections on both sides of the bank caused difficulties, especially on the Koblenz side. Here not only the railway line on the left bank of the Rhine and the country road had to be crossed, but also the Rheinlache (Rhine arm) , which was cut off, and the island of Oberwerth, on which a high embankment was raised. The bridge and the dam were connected by four arched stone land arches, each 25 meters wide. A land arch of the same width was built on the Horchheim side.

The two current openings were originally two per 106.6 m long welding iron - Tudor arched trusses spanning with spandrel road, by the Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen were carried out according to the technical design of the engineers Hilff Altenloh and Sarrazin. The construction management was Gisbert Gillhausen . A gate tower made of red sandstone rose at the transition from the stream openings to the approach bridges . The bridge was completed in autumn 1878. Scheduled rail traffic over the bridge began on May 15, 1879. The construction costs, excluding dam construction and work to regulate the river, amounted to around 2.2 million marks (16,363,358 euros). The Pfaffendorfer Bridge , located 2.3 km downstream and completed in 1864, was hardly used by the railways and only played a subordinate role for national rail traffic.

Further expansion

As with the first Pfaffendorfer bridge, it was initially possible to open the Horchheim railway bridge to pedestrian traffic during breaks. After a frequency of 130 scheduled trains had been reached, the bridge had to be rebuilt and strengthened in 1901/1902. During this time, pedestrian walkways were installed on both sides and the 576 meter long tunnel was built on the Horchheim side, which enabled direct access to the railway line on the right bank of the Rhine from the north. Another renovation took place in 1933/1934.

War destruction and new construction

The Horchheimer railway bridge was almost completely destroyed by units of the Wehrmacht in retreat at the end of the Second World War . After the erection of a temporary high lattice construction, it could be used again on June 16, 1947 as a single track. In 1961 the bridge got its present shape. A modern girder bridge installed next to the temporary structure was moved onto the old bridge piers. From 1969 to 1975 was the south Horchheimer railway bridge, just 36 meters away, the south bridge .

  • The temporarily restored Horchheim railway bridge in 1953

  • The Horchheimer railway bridge and the south bridge

Bridge damage

The footbridge downstream has been closed for many years because it has been irreparably damaged. From 2004 the pedestrian walkway upstream was also closed because it was in disrepair. After the renovation of the part on the bridgehead on the left bank of the Rhine, it was opened again on May 16, 2007. At the end of January 2009, the footpath and cycle path of the bridgehead on the right bank of the Rhine on the Horchheim side had to be closed due to serious concrete damage. On June 29, 2009, the bridge was again opened for pedestrian and bicycle traffic after the stability of the path could be guaranteed by an additional steel structure at the bridgehead on the right bank of the Rhine.

In the medium term, the upstream pedestrian walkway will have to be widened over its entire length to 2.50 meters so that it can be recognized as a cycle path . This is important because money has already flowed from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate for the construction of cycle paths, which would otherwise have to be paid back. However, an expansion will probably not be implemented before 2015/2016.

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Panorama of the approach bridge on the Oberwerther side and the river bridge

construction

The approach bridge on the Oberwerther side

Today's Horchheimer railway bridge consists of three massive bridge arches on the left bank of the Rhine, two large openings over the river, which are spanned by a beam construction, another massive bridge arch 25 m wide on the right bank of the Rhine and an adjoining short bridge over the right stretch of the Rhine. The original two outer river pillars are preserved up to the level of the carriageway, the middle pillar only up to just above the base height. The foreheads of the pillars are faced with Mendiger basalt lava . The land arches on the left bank of the Rhine (Oberwerther side) are faced with Worms bricks, the pillars themselves and the remains of the arch reveal are clad with hunched sandstone blocks . The bridge with a total length of 312 meters has a width of 12.4 m at the central pillar and a construction height of 5.5 m.

Monument protection

The two foreland bridges of the Horchheimer railway bridge are a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . They are in Horchheim and on the Oberwerth .

The Horchheim railway bridge has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Horchheimer Eisenbahnbrücke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horchheimer Tunnel in: eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de
  2. ^ Hans Bellinghausen: Old and New Rhine and Moselle Bridges, Festschrift 1953
  3. ↑ Horchheimer Brücke is open again in: Rhein-Zeitung , June 28, 2009
  4. ↑ Standstill on Horchheimer Brücke: The cycle path will not be expanded before 2015 in: Rhein-Zeitung , April 3, 2013
  5. ↑ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.5 MB), Koblenz 2013
The next bridge upstream:
Südbrücke (Koblenz) 		Bridges over the Rhine The next bridge downstream:
Pfaffendorfer Bridge