Cologne motorway ring

Cologne motorway ring
map
Basic data
Operator:	Federal Republic of Germany
Overall length:	51.8 km - 51 km (official mileage) 51 km (clockwise) 52.5 km (counterclockwise)
State :	North Rhine-Westphalia

The Cologne motorway ring - also briefly Cologne Ring called - is clockwise from the city of Cologne ring surrounding highway sections of A 3 , the A 4 and A 1 between the motorway junction Leverkusen , the motorway interchange Köln-Heumar and the motorway interchange Köln-West over a length of 51.8 km. The ring is the central transition point between these three highly frequented motorways and therefore has to cope with the local traffic flows at the same time as the long-distance traffic. It is therefore one of the most heavily used and most prone to traffic jams in Germany ; According to the 2015 road traffic census by the Federal Highway Research Institute , the Cologne motorway ring has overtaken the Berlin city ring ( A 100 ) in the ranking of the busiest motorway sections in Germany and is currently in first place.

The Kölner Ring crosses the A 559 autobahn at the Köln-Gremberg junction , the A 555 from Bonn at the Köln-Süd junction and the A 57 ( Krefeld - Cologne-Ehrenfeld ) at the Köln-Nord junction . The A 59 is connected to the Kölner Ring from Düsseldorf at the Leverkusen-West interchange and from Bonn at the Heumarer Dreieck .

The motorway ring is the outermost of the Cologne road rings. With the exception of 6 km in the northeast, it runs entirely within Cologne's urban area. Other Cologne rings are - from the outside in - the military ring , the belt , the inner canal street and the rings .

history

The Kölner Ring emerged from Leverkusen in a clockwise direction. In 1936 the section between Leverkusen and Cologne-Mülheim was completed as part of the Oberhausen - Wiesbaden motorway , and in 1937 the section to Siegburg . Today's Ostring was already passable. In 1941 the construction of the Rodenkirchen Rhine bridge was completed and the connection from the A3 to the Cologne – Bonn motorway on the left bank of the Rhine (today's A 555) was established.

In the years 1957 to 1960 the Cologne - Aachen motorway was completed, the section from the Cologne-Süd junction to the later Cologne-West junction was in operation from 1958. In 1961, construction work began on the second motorway bridge over the Rhine in the north of Cologne. With the completion of the Nordwestring in 1965, the entire length of the Kölner Ring can be used.

In 1971 the A1 was extended to the south beyond the Köln-West junction and in 1974 the A4 was connected to the A3 from the east at the Köln-Ost junction. Since then, the section between Kreuz Köln-Ost and Dreieck Heumar has consisted of two motorways, the A 3 (Ostring) and the A 4 (Südring).

All motorways in Cologne

Expansion section of the A3 in front of the Köln-Ost junction

Current condition (with specific expansion plans and ongoing expansions)

Traffic volume

With a daily traffic volume of 360,000 vehicles, 15% of which are trucks, the Cologne motorway ring was one of the most frequented motorways in Europe in 2012. There were 28 traffic accidents on the motorways around Cologne every day. According to the 2015 road traffic census by the Federal Highway Research Institute , the Cologne motorway ring has overtaken the Berlin city ring ( A 100 ) in the ranking of the busiest motorway sections in Germany and is currently number 1.

Telematics

As part of the preparations for the 2006 World Cup , the A 3 was equipped with a traffic control system with variable message signs , which directs traffic flows to diversion routes such as the B 8 when there is a risk of congestion . This has been in continuous operation since May 10, 2006.

Ring in general

The traffic load on the Cologne motorway ring has increased continuously since the 1960s. Structurally planned extensions to six lanes (without hard shoulder) were carried out everywhere, but soon proved to be no longer sufficient to cope with the traffic load of over 171,000 vehicles a day in some places today.

As a result, the Cologne motorway ring has now been completely expanded to six lanes since the 1990s (partly to 8 lanes in the Ostring).

Ostring

The further eight-lane expansion between the Leverkusen motorway junction and AS Leverkusen is being planned; likewise the renovation of the Leverkusen cross itself.

The eight-lane expansion between AS Leverkusen and AS Köln-Mülheim has been open to traffic for both directions since June 2, 2017 (the section was approved at the end of January 2012. The expansion began in June 2015).

The section between AS Köln-Mülheim and AS Köln-Dellbrück has been passable with a total of eight lanes since its completion on July 19, 2012.

The eight-lane expansion between AS Köln-Dellbrück and the Köln-Ost junction took place until August 2008.

The section Kreuz Köln-Ost - Dreieck Heumar of the A 3 / A 4 was expanded from October 12, 2003 (first groundbreaking) to December 6, 2005 (traffic opening) as the first section of the motorway in North Rhine-Westphalia to four lanes in each direction.

Südring

In the 1990s, the Südring between the triangle Köln-Heumar and the Kreuz Köln-West was expanded from 4 to 6 lanes and the Rodenkirchen Bridge was supplemented by a second, identical bridge. A new connection point for the Cologne-Eifeltor container station was also created .

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.

Due to the considerable traffic load, an expansion of the BAB 4 between the Köln-Gremberg junction and the Köln-Süd junction to eight lanes is planned in order to better link the highways BAB 59 and BAB 555, which run south towards Bonn . This would also require an extension of the Rodenkirchen bridge .

The Cologne-Süd motorway junction is also to be rebuilt larger in the future (details are not yet known). As a first measure, an additional (makeshift) bridge structure was built to unbundle the traffic flows (completion since April 2017) to avoid the backlogs on the A4 that can be observed daily (due to the traffic turning off the A4 from the east towards the A 555 to the south towards Bonn) and to avoid or at least reduce the A 555 (due to the traffic turning off the A 555 from the south, direction A 4 to the west, direction Aachen).

The Köln-West junction was fundamentally rebuilt by 2003. The previous cloverleaf shape was broken up by creating additional connecting curves (e.g. direct connection from the A4 from Aachen to the A1 towards Dortmund). At the moment the cross is still being rebuilt. After a construction stoppage due to award complaints, construction work was resumed in December 2014. There are extensive unbundling of the traffic flows, which u. a. also because of the immediately south adjoining-on the A1- Frechen junction and the industrial areas there (with high truck volume) is definitely more complicated. As a last measure, u. a. an additional bridge was built for traffic coming from the A4 from Olpe to the A1 towards Koblenz. The renovation should be completed in the last quarter of 2017. As a further measure to unbundle the high volume of traffic, the expansion of the previous Frechen-Nord half-exit (previously only access and exit from and in the direction of Aachen possible) on the A4 west of the Cologne-West intersection has been required for a long time.

Northwest Ring

The six-lane expansion of the A1 between the motorway junctions Cologne-West and Cologne-North had been under construction since February 2007 and was completed in autumn 2015. The motorway between the Cologne-West junction and the railway bridge on the Cologne-Aachen route was roofed over for noise protection reasons. The " Lövenich enclosure " has been released on all 6 lanes since December 21, 2012. Safety tests and remaining work were completed by mid-2014. The six-lane expansion between AS Köln-Bocklemünd and the Köln-Nord junction (mainly by adding hard lanes on both sides and adapting or building new crossings) then took place from 2013 and was completed in autumn 2015.

As part of the extensive preparations for the new construction of the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge from 2017 in and around the Cologne motorway ring, a new construction of the central structure in the Cologne-North intersection is planned from 2016 and is expected to last until the end of 2018. The new bridge structure will already be designed for the 6-lane operation of the A 57. As a result of this conversion, the A 57 is to be expanded to 6 lanes as far as the Cologne-Chorweiler junction. In addition, the cross is to be rebuilt so that a half-ramp is to be built over the A 57 to unbundle the traffic flows for the journey from the A 1 from the direction of Euskirchen to the A 57 towards Neuss; For the journey from the A 1 from Dortmund to the A 57 in the direction of Cologne, a half-ramp is also to be built below the A 57.

A renovation of the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge did not seem sensible, so initially a replacement with a new construction by 2025 was considered. On November 30, 2012 it was suddenly discovered that the motorway bridge over the Rhine near Leverkusen was so dilapidated that it was necessary to immediately block vehicles over 3.5 tons. This led to traffic chaos in and around Cologne. After a provisional repair until March 2013, the bridge closure was temporarily lifted, but was reintroduced in 2014 and will now in all probability have to remain in place until the bridge is rebuilt; However, the bridge is still under constant surveillance and temporary repairs are constantly being carried out to avoid full closure. The planned replacement bridge should therefore be built earlier than previously planned, namely by 2020 at the latest; however, delays in the exploration of ordnance mean that the bridge will probably not be completed until 2015. According to the original planning, the new bridge was to be designed for eight-lane operation, but initially operated as six-lane. However, since the planners are assuming an increased traffic load on the A 1 of 25% by 2025, the new bridge should now (as of April 2013) be expanded to 10 lanes. Likewise, a tunnel under the Rhine is already being discussed, since the widening or local relocation of the new bridge u. a. could encounter underground problems at an old garbage dump in the Leverkusen area. The planning approval decision of the Cologne district government has been in place since November 24, 2016 , with which, as expected, the construction of a new Rhine bridge (at roughly the same point as the previous bridge), consisting of two independent bridge bodies with 5 lanes each and a separate bike / footpath at the respective Outer sides is planned. The envisaged tunnel solutions were rejected as too expensive and too time-consuming. The first groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the bridge officially took place on December 14, 2017.

The section between the Köln-Nord interchange and the Leverkusen interchange has been expanded to include six lanes. But the sections from the Rhine bridge to the Leverkusen junction on the A1 and the A3 in the area of ​​the Leverkusen motorway junction are now in need of renovation and / or expansion. In connection with the much-needed reconstruction of the bridge over the Rhine Leverkusen is therefore also planned the highway section of the Leverkusen Rhine bridge to cross Leverkusen on the A1 -including the crosses Leverkusen-West and Leverkusen- and the section immediately north and south of the Cross Leverkusen on Completely redesign A3.

(unrealized) plans

"Second ring"

In the mid-1970s, consideration was given to not expanding the ring, which was already heavily used at the time, to six to eight lanes, but instead building another motorway ring around Cologne, including existing motorways. It was hoped that this would relieve the Cologne Ring from long-distance traffic. In addition, a further expansion of the existing ring was seen as very complex and expensive due to the numerous bridge structures.

The western section of this second ring is the A 61. The planned extension of the A 31 through the Bergisches Land was planned as the eastern stretch . In the north, these motorways were to be connected by the A 54 , which was never built . The only completed section is today's A 542 . The southern connection should be made by crossing the Rhine again near Wesseling .

More highways

→ Main article : Cologne city motorway

The section of the A3 between Kreuz Köln-Ost and Köln-Mülheim during the expansion phase in 2008

The plans of the 1960s and 1970s provided for the construction of numerous new motorways in the greater Cologne area, four of which would have led to the Cologne Ring in addition to the eleven existing ones. If all these plans had been implemented, the Kölner Ring would run over nine motorway junctions and three motorway triangles.

• The A 540 , of which only a 7 km long section was built near Grevenbroich , would have met the A 1 from Mönchengladbach at today's Cologne-Bocklemünd junction.
• As a 5 km long connection between the A 54 and the A 1, the A 552 would have met the ring near Cologne-Niehl. Since the road connected here has four lanes, the junction has the character of a motorway junction.
• The extension of the A 43 from Wuppertal was to meet the Kölner Ring north of the Köln-Mülheim junction together with the A 59.
• The A 553 should be extended from Brühl to the A 4 between the Köln-Eifeltor junction and the Köln-Süd junction.
• The A 59 was to run from a motorway junction between Cologne-Mülheim and Leverkusen on both sides of the A 3 to the Heumarer Dreieck . The Köln-Ost motorway junction was designed for this during construction.

particularities

The approximately 6 km long section of the A 3 / A 4 from the Köln-Ost junction via the Heumar triangle to the Gremberg junction is next to the section of the A 5 from the Frankfurter Westkreuz to the Bad Homburg junction and the section of the A 61 from the Frankenthal junction to to Kreuz Mutterstadt is the only section of motorway in Germany on which three motorway junctions follow one another without a junction in between. This sequence is then only interrupted by the Cologne-Poll junction, after which the Cologne-Süd motorway junction follows. The low number of interchanges is due to the fact that, with the exception of the Heumarer Dreieck, all motorways lead over the crosses as city or motorway access roads into Cologne and thus replace interchanges.

Web links

• Information on the Kölner Ring from the State Office for Road Construction in North Rhine-Westphalia
• City map Cologne with motorways

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kölner Ring is the most heavily used motorway section in Germany. In: Kölnische Rundschau . January 30, 2017 ( rundschau-online.de ).
2. ↑ Web cameras on the North Rhine-Westphalian motorways. Landesbetrieb Straßenbau NRW (preset here on the Cologne motorway ring), accessed on June 5, 2017.
3. ↑ More controls, fewer accidents. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . February 6, 2013 ( ksta.de ).
4. ↑ Telematics in road traffic. Landesbetrieb Straßenbau NRW , accessed on September 8, 2016 (information on expansion planning for telematics (including on the entire Cologne motorway ring)). 
5. ↑ Lt. 2015 traffic census in the section of the Ostring.
6. ^ The Cologne motorway ring. Landesbetrieb Straßenbau NRW , accessed on September 8, 2016 (information on the development status and planning of the Cologne motorway ring). 
7. ↑ A3: Now also in the direction of Frankfurt on four lanes .  ( 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. State Office for Road Construction NRW , June 1, 2017 (press release).  
8. ↑ Planning approval decision for the expansion of the A 3 between AS Köln-Mülheim and AS Leverkusen is now available!
9. ↑ Press release from July 19, 2012: Eight lanes on the A3 in the east of Cologne ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2015 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. 
10. ↑ 240,000 cars every day by 2029: This woman will save Cologne's largest traffic jam. In: Express . December 29, 2019 ( express.de ), accessed December 29, 2019.
11. ↑ A 3 / A 4 / A 59: Conversion of the Heumar motorway triangle on the DEGES website , accessed on December 29, 2019.
12. ↑ Expansion of the A4 - Rodenkirchener Brücke is to receive two more lanes. In: Kölnische Rundschau . February 5, 2020 ( report from the newspaper ), accessed on February 9, 2020.
13. ↑ Information on the A4 / A555 - new bridge construction at the Cologne-Süd motorway junction of the State Office for Road Construction North Rhine-Westphalia (accessed: October 11, 2016)
14. ^ Reconstruction of the Cologne-West motorway junction. Landesbetrieb Straßenbau NRW , accessed on September 8, 2016 (information on expansion status and planning). 
15. ↑ A4 - Planning Before the World Cup it was faster then In: Kölnische Rundschau . 2016 ( rundschau-online.de ).
16. ↑ Lövenich tunnel completed in July.
17. ↑ Construction site planning around Cologne. State Office for Road Construction NRW , accessed on September 10, 2016 . 
18. ↑ Information from the State Office for Road Construction NRW : A1 / A57: Conversion of the Cologne-North motorway junction , accessed on June 11, 2017.
19. ^ Peter Berger: Leverkusener Autobahn Bridge: There is a risk of traffic chaos around Cologne. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . November 30, 2012 ( ksta.de ).
20. ↑ ^{a b} The Leverkusen Rhine Bridge. State Office for Road Construction NRW , accessed on September 11, 2016 . 
21. ↑ "Low blow for Leverkusen" - construction of the new Rhine bridge is delayed by up to a year. In: Kölnische Rundschau . June 14, 2019 ( rundschau-online.de ).
22. ↑ The new motorway bridge in Leverkusen is to have eight lanes. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . December 19, 2012 ( ksta.de ).
23. ↑ Bert-Christoph Gerhards: Autobahn 1: Start of construction for new bridge in 2017? In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . April 24, 2013 ( ksta.de ).
24. ^ Bert-Christoph Gerhards: Autobahn 1: Rhine Tunnel as an Alternative? In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . December 20, 2012 ( ksta.de ).
25. ↑ Thomas Käding: Comment: Smart solutions for the Rhine bridge. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . August 8, 2012 ( ksta.de ).
26. ↑ Preparatory press release ( Memento of the original from November 25, 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. of the Landesbetrieb Straßenbau NRW dated November 17, 2016 ( A1: planning approval decision is now open ) with reference to a corresponding press release from the Cologne district government and a link to the planning approval decision, which is also available as a PDF file 
27. ↑ Information on the construction progress of the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge , Landesbetriebs Straßenbau NRW (accessed: June 10, 2018)
28. ^ The expansion of the motorway near Leverkusen. State Office for Road Construction NRW , accessed on September 11, 2016 .