Cologne city motorway
| Cologne city motorway | |
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| Basic data | |
| Operator: |
 Federal Republic of Germany
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| Overall length: | ? km |
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| Development condition: | Planning discarded |
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The Cologne city motorway is a transport project from the 1960s that was never completed. This city freeway should connect Cologne city center via the existing A 57 at the Köln-Nord junction to the A 1 , via its continuation (north tangent) at the Köln-Ost junction to the A 3 and as A 555 (west tangent) at the Köln junction -Connect the south to the A 4 .
On the left bank of the Rhine, the city motorway was to run mainly over the green belt, parallel to the Inner Canal Road . There were first critical voices against the project in the 1970s, as the green belt would have fallen victim to motor vehicle traffic. Therefore, in a revised plan between Amsterdamer Strasse and Gleisdreieck, a tunnel location on the city motorway was favored. Above-ground connections to the local road network were planned at Escher Straße, Neusser Straße / Niehler Straße and Amsterdamer Straße. Continuing protests from the population and politics finally stopped the project. Only the part between the Cologne Zoo and the connection to the A3 was completed.
Apart from some areas that have now been developed in the area of Militärringstrasse / Bonner Strasse, Brühler Strasse / Gürtel and west of Luxemburger Strasse, the route on the planned route would still be possible today.
West tangent
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| Basic data | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operator: |
Federal Republic of Germany
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State : |
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| Development condition: | Planning discarded | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Course of the road
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In the south, the city motorway was to connect to the A 4 at the Köln-Süd junction and, as the A 555, initially run northwest across the Brühler Straße / Gürtel intersection, past the Cologne wholesale market , over the Vorgebirgstraße to Luxemburger Straße , where it meets the green belt should serve as a route. To the east of Universitätsstrasse / Innerer Kanalstrasse, the autobahn should cross Aachener and Venloer Strasse and finally merge into a motorway triangle Neustadt-Nord at Herkulesstrasse .
A section of this section from the south intersection to the distribution circle was only built during the construction of today's A 555 around 1930. At today's intersection of Innere Kanalstraße / Herkulesstraße, there is now a motorway triangle that distributes traffic from the A 57 to the Innere Kanalstraße.
North tangent
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| Basic data | ||||||||||||||||
| Operator: |
Federal Republic of Germany
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State : |
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| Development condition: | Planning discarded | |||||||||||||||
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Course of the road
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The Herkulesstraße road tunnel is now the extension of the A 57, which should be continued from the planned motorway triangle in an easterly direction to the Cologne-East motorway junction . The route up to Amsterdamer Strasse would have been roughly parallel to today's Inner Canal Street. From there a ramp leads to the Zoobrücke over the Rhine, as far as Kalk-Mülheimer-Strasse as an elevated road over the Palatinate Ring and then on over Frankfurter Strasse to the Köln-Ost motorway junction.
Between 1962 and 1966 the zoo bridge over the Rhine and the section up to the Cologne-East motorway junction were built. From Amsterdamer Strasse over the Zoobrücke to Kreuz Ost , the street now runs as a 6-lane city motorway B 55a .
Construction work
A bridge was built for the underpass of the north tangent under Neusser Strasse, which today only runs a footpath under Neusser Strasse. The Lohsestraße stop of the U-Bahn under Neusser Straße, which opened in 1974, has exits on both sides of the planned route, but both are out of town from the Innere Kanalstraße, which is why pedestrians have to cross them at a traffic light crossing. Three of the eleven bridges of the Gleisdreieck leading over the Innere Kanalstrasse are considerably excess width. The middle passage between the pillars would provide space for approx. 8 lanes, but only 5 lanes + footpath and bike path are used. The two outer passageways are unused.