King Ludwig Bridge
Coordinates: 47 ° 42 ′ 56 ″ N , 10 ° 19 ′ 18 ″ E
| King Ludwig Bridge | ||
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| use | Bicycle, pedestrian bridge |
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| Crossing of | Iller | |
| place |
Kempten (Allgäu) , Germany
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| construction | Half-timbered, wood | |
| overall length | 121.6 m | |
| Number of openings | 3 | |
| Pillar spacing | 37.0 - 54.8 - 28.6 m | |
| height | 30 m | |
| start of building | 1847 | |
| completion | 1851 | |
| location | ||
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The König-Ludwig-Brücke is a bridge over the Iller in the city of Kempten in the Allgäu . The building was erected by the Royal Bavarian State Railway in the mid- 19th century . After several renovations and changes in use, the bridge now serves as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge .
location
The bridge crosses the Iller breakthrough in the south of Kempten. When it was built, the area around the bridge was hardly built on. From a geological point of view, the bridge structure stands on deposits of the terminal moraines and retreat stages of the Würm Ice Age .
history
The three-span wooden bridge was built from 1847 to 1851 using the half-timbered construction developed by the American engineer William Howe with two parallel superstructures and an overhead carriageway for the Ludwig-Süd-Nord-Bahn .
The weight of the trains and locomotives soon increased, and the bridge was later operated on a single track. Only one train was allowed to be on the bridge at a time. In the middle of the bridge span, tension straps made of iron were installed in 1878.
In 1905, the building was closed to trains due to the almost completed neighboring concrete bridges ( Obere Illerbrücken ). In 1911 the city of Kempten acquired the truss bridge and had it converted for road traffic. In April 1945 the Wehrmacht blew up the eastern field of the wooden superstructures. In 1945 the gap could be closed by a wooden makeshift bridge . In 1957 this makeshift construction was replaced by a composite construction .
After the construction of the new Kempten main train station was completed in 1969, one of the concrete bridges was no longer used by the railway and converted for road traffic. In 1970, the city was able to open the city's oldest bridge structure to pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge was given its current name König-Ludwig-Brücke in 1988; its official name is Illerbrücke I at the monument office . Previously, the bridge parts from 1957 had been dismantled due to corrosion damage. In addition, the central and western sections of the northern, wooden superstructure were expanded in 1986 with a truck-mounted crane. The western section was shortened, rotated 180 degrees and replaced in the eastern gap.
The bridge is the only surviving and longest of all Howe bridges in Germany, it is believed that this unique selling point applies worldwide. In 2005, the larch and oak wood of the bridge was protected from solar radiation with a synthetic fiber net in order to counteract the aging of the wood. Originally, the bridge was boarded to protect the wood from the weather (and probably also to protect it from glowing pieces of coal falling from the locomotives). However, this measure could not prevent moisture damage.
In the meantime, the damage caused by the weather had progressed so far that the city of Kempten decided in December 2013 to close the bridge for safety reasons. A small group of people questioned the renovation of the bridge and asked for it to be demolished. The Kempten city council made the decision to renovate. The funds for this come from various sources, including funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety . From September 1, 2017, the neighboring road bridge was closed in order to use two large cranes to transport the wooden structure, dismantled into three parts, first onto the bridge and then onto a parking lot on Kotterner Straße. There the bridge parts were refurbished in a kind of "field workshop" and prepared for reinstallation. On July 17, 2018, the middle and heaviest part of the bridge was put back on the pillars after the restoration. The renovation, which was funded in 2015 by the federal program for national urban development projects, was completed in 2018.
construction
The bridge spans the 120 meters wide and at this point 34 meters deep Illertal with three girders whose spans are 35, 52 and 26 meters (from west to east). The cross-section of the wooden bridge superstructure, two box-shaped structures, each have two vertical, 5.26-meter-high girder walls and a wind bracing below and above . These box-shaped structures were stiffened transversely every twelve meters with St. Andrew's crosses. The support walls have three layers. The two outer ones consist of the main struts that rise towards the middle of the bridge. The counter struts form the middle layer of the support wall. The struts have a square cross-section with an edge length of 19 centimeters and are made of hewn Swiss larch beams. Oil-soaked oak was also used. The stretching trees (upper and lower chords) are each made up of three parallel beams with rectangular cross-sectional dimensions of 22 x 28 centimeters and are approximately 10.6 meters long. The pair of iron hanging rods are arranged in the bridge fields about every 2.12 meters. The diameters vary between five centimeters near the supports and four centimeters in the middle of the field. This points to the calculation of Howeschen girders by Karl Culmann . The hanging rods were manufactured at BHS in Sonthofen . These two box constructions carried the two tracks of the railway via common crossbeams. The entire wooden structure rests on two pillars with a height of about 25 meters and on two abutments made of quarry stone masonry with a faced stone. The pillars, on the other hand, are made of solid Nagelfluh. The two abutments have pointed barrel-shaped rooms in which basins are embedded that also served as extinguishing water storage. The protection of the wooden structure was achieved by a "roof" made of double wooden cladding and a cover with tinplate, the sides by hanging wooden panels. This cladding provided protection from the elements (rain, sun) and from flying sparks and ashes from steam locomotives.
Because of the increasing weight of the locomotives (in 1854 about 19 tons, 1859 about 30 tons, 1890s about 60 tons) the bridge was later operated on a single track. In the middle of the bridge span, iron-made tension straps (tensioning) were installed in 1880, which were attached to the wooden upper trees (function as a pressure strap of the construction).
After the bridge was bought by the city of Kempten in 1911, the tracks were dismantled and the original substructure of the railway bridge was provided with a tramway.
In 1986 the whole bridge was extensively rebuilt. The northern, upstream girder was expanded with all three partial girders, the western girder was rebuilt, rotated and replaced the composite structure from 1951 in the eastern part of the southern, downstream girder. The wood of the middle, northern girder went under or became a supporting structure single footbridge z. B. used at the city pond. The hanging wooden panels on the sides were removed so that, on the one hand, the view of the girder construction is free, and on the other hand, the wind load on the bridge could be reduced.
In December 2013 the city of Kempten closed the bridge. The carriers were packed with foil so that no further weather influences can occur on the construction. The stability of the bridge was checked, and the result of the check is to be used to develop a rehabilitation plan. In August 2015, the Kempten City Council decided to renovate the bridge. The pure construction costs of the renovation of the bridge were initially estimated at 3.3 million euros. The total costs incl. B. Planning and environment design, but ultimately amounted to more than 5 million euros. Two thirds of the subsidy is to flow from the “Federal Program for National Road Construction Projects”. After the renovation, the bridge should be available to pedestrians and cyclists again.
As part of the renovation, after 2013, the damaged components were replaced. For a permanent solution, a horizontally running lamella formwork was installed, which on the one hand protects the bridge from the rain and on the other hand has low air resistance, so that the bridge could be verified without tension anchoring on the pillars. This also made it possible for parts of the supporting structure to be visible. Mastic asphalt is also applied so that it can also be used with various vehicles (e.g. inline skates). The railing is designed as a rope railing.
meaning
- The König-Ludwig-Brücke is a monument due to the Bavarian Monument Protection Act .
- On April 20, 2012, the bridge was named a “ Historic Landmark of Civil Engineering in Germany ” by the Federal Chamber of Engineers . The reasons for the award were not only that it is one of the oldest (> 150 years) wooden railway bridges in the world and the oldest bridge according to the Howe system in Europe, but also because the dimensioning of the bridge is not based on empirical , but on calculated bases. The bridge thus marks the transition to the theoretically based construction in the 19th century. "Without exaggeration, it can be seen as a worldwide unique monument of structural engineering."
- On September 22, 2019, the bridge received the German Road and Transport Engineer Award 2019 in the “Building Culture” category.
- The bridge is one of the three nominated bridges for the "German Bridge Construction Award 2020" in the category of pedestrian bridges. The decision will be made in the second half of 2020.
Howe straps below
Support detail
Badge of the Federal Chamber of Engineers
Disguise
Lock
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Representation in art
The building testified to industrialization and the admiration for technical progress. For this reason, numerous lithographs and drawings were created during this time, the bridge as the main motif. This changed with the completion of the neighboring concrete bridges, the wooden construction from the photos was completely retouched.
After its construction until 1986, the bridge was always paneled with wooden panels, so the half-timbered structure was not visible. Nevertheless, many illustrations - including portraits from the time it was commissioned - show the bridge with its exposed truss.
Individual evidence
- ↑ World record bridge in Kempten. TU-Dresden, October 3, 2007, accessed on March 6, 2011 .
- ↑ In the belly of the bridge. In: all-in. Allgäuer Zeitung, September 9, 2010, accessed on March 6, 2011 .
- ↑ King Ludwig Bridge. In: Structurae. April 4, 2008, accessed March 6, 2011 .
- ^ Karl Gotsch: Illerbrücken in Kempten. February 2007, accessed March 6, 2011 .
- ↑ Melanie Läufle: König-Ludwig-Brücke needs to be renovated. "Massive damage". In: Kreisbote.de, December 5, 2013 (accessed December 12, 2013)
- ↑ http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/bayern/Sanierung-von-historischer-Koenig-Ludwig-Bruecke-startet-holprig-id42578186.html https://www.kempten.de/de/Geschichte_KLB.php
- ↑ Final spurt in the restoration of the King Ludwig Bridge in Kempten
- ^ P. 82: renovation of the historic König-Ludwig-Brücke; Project duration 2015–2018
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 9
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 35
- ↑ Holz-Zentralblatt 2012 No. 17/38
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 36
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, pp. 46/47
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 43
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 61
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 43
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 69
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 69
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 69 (graphic).
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 34
- ↑ Melanie Läufle: König-Ludwig-Brücke needs to be renovated. "Massive Damage" In: Kreisbote.de, December 5, 2013 (accessed December 12, 2013)
- ↑ Successful lifting of the Kempten King Ludwig Bridge ( memento from July 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ King Ludwig Bridge is being renovated ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Information about the Ensemble Illerbrücken , accessed on March 6, 2011.
- ^ Federal Chamber of Engineers : König-Ludwig-Brücke in Kempten becomes a landmark of engineering
- ↑ Holzer, 2012, p. 11
- ↑ Historic landmarks of engineering in Germany. Retrieved June 15, 2014 .
- ↑ The German Road and Transport Engineering Award 2019 goes to Erfurt, Karlsruhe and Kempten - BSVI - Federal Association of Road Construction and Transport Engineers. Retrieved December 28, 2019 .
- ↑ German Bridge Construction Prize 2020 - Six Structures in the Final - German Bridge Construction Prize. Retrieved December 28, 2019 .
literature
- Stefan M. Holzer: The King Ludwig Bridge Kempten . Historic landmarks of civil engineering in Germany. Ed .: Federal Chamber of Engineers. Federal Chamber of Engineers, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-941867-09-3 .
- Reinhold Breubeck: Kempten railway junction (Allgäu) . The railway in Oberallgäu and Ausserfern. Eisenbahn-Fachbuch-Verl., Neustadt / Coburg 2005, ISBN 3-9807748-9-9 .
- Klaus Stiglat: Bridges on the way . Early iron and concrete bridges in Germany and France. Ernst, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-433-01299-7 , pp. 139 ff .
