Kamen Cross

Kamen Cross
map
location
Country:	Germany
State :	North Rhine-Westphalia
Coordinates:	51 ° 36 '3 "  N , 7 ° 41' 14"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 36 '3 "  N , 7 ° 41' 14"  E
Height:	70  m above sea level NN
Basic data
Design type:	Shamrock with a semi-direct ramp
Bridges:	6 (motorway)
Construction year:	1937
Last modification:	2009
Aerial view of the Kamen Cross after the renovation

Aerial view of the Kamen Cross before the renovation

The Kamener Kreuz is a motorway junction in North Rhine-Westphalia , which is located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region . It connects the first motorways in the country, the federal motorway 1 ( Heiligenhafen - Cologne - Saarbrücken ; north-south direction) and the federal motorway 2 ( Oberhausen - Hanover - Berlin ; west-east direction).

geography

The motorway junction is located in the northeast of the Ruhr area , in the urban area of Kamen . The surrounding cities are Hamm , Unna , Bergkamen and the municipality of Bönen . It is located about 11 km east of Lünen , 12 km southwest of Hamm, 18 km northeast of Dortmund and 40 km south of Münster . It is part of the Dortmund motorway ring .

On the A 1, the junction bears the junction number 82 and on the A 2 the number 16.

history

It is - after the Schkeuditzer Kreuz - the second oldest motorway junction in the shape of a clover in Germany. It was put into operation in 1937. However, the earthworks started this year for the north-south direction initially only formed a stump 5.2 km in length. The completed motorway junction was only opened to traffic on October 27, 1956.

Renovation 2005–2009

A renovation of the cross was completed on August 25, 2009 after a five-year construction period. Since then, the cross has been accessible in six lanes. A particular challenge here was the demolition and completely new construction of the A1 bridge, which is used by 90,000 vehicles every day.

Since then, the cross has lost its classic cloverleaf shape, as traffic from the A2 from Hanover is directed via a two-lane semi-direct ramp onto the A1 towards Cologne. The ramp first crosses under the A1 in a large arc in the northern area of ​​the cross and leads over the A2 in the western area of ​​the cross to the A1 in the direction of Cologne. In June 2009 the semi-direct ramp was opened to traffic. The previous circular drive in the north-western sector of the cross was omitted due to the new ramp, but the Ohr is still passable. Since 2010, the new connection may only partially be used at a speed of 60 km / h.

The expansion of the tangential carriageway between the A1 from Cologne to the A2 towards Hanover from one lane to two lanes was completed in November 2009. Both measures take into account the heavy turning traffic in the Cologne-Hanover relationship and vice versa. The other connections remained single-track.

As a result of the renovation, the motorway police lost their central location in the middle of the motorway junction. It was relocated to the A 1 at the Kamen-Zentrum exit.

Trivia

Monument, front view

Since September 2011 there is a new landmark on the northwestern hill in the Kamener Kreuz. Eight angels carry a pedestal on which a yellow ADAC helicopter stands. This unmistakable monument was designed by the Lüdinghausen artist Alfred Gockel . The helicopter is an original BO 105 M ADAC rescue helicopter, which, however, was set up without technical installations at the end of its regular service life.

The Kamener Kreuz is also known by the locals as "the largest place of pilgrimage in Germany" because of its frequent traffic jams and the resulting numerous reports on traffic radio.

The satirist and songwriter Hans Scheibner described the frequent construction site jams in his song Kamener Kreuz with the refrain "I live in the car at the Kamener Kreuz".

The German musician Gottlieb Wendehals also mentions the motorway junction in his hit Polonäse Blankenese ("Am Kamener Kreuz right off"), as does Reinhard Mey ("I'm stuck in a traffic jam at the Kamener Kreuz") in his song But at home 'I can only be in Berlin .

In the short-lived television program Welle Wahnsinn (1982) with Dieter Hallervorden , reference is made to the route in the song Geisterfahrer . In the film itself, however , you can see a series in Berlin .

The Lassie Singers mention the Kamener Kreuz as a landmark on the way back from the south in their title Hamburg .

Traffic volume

It is a very busy traffic junction due to the important traffic axes that meet here . Around 166,000 vehicles pass the Kamener Kreuz every day.

From	To	Average daily traffic volume			Share of heavy goods traffic
		2005	2010	2015	2005	2010	2015
AS Hamm / Bergkamen (A 1)	Kamen Cross	65,600	63,200	77,300	14.0%	17.1%	13.4%
Kamen Cross	AS Kamen Center (A 1)	90,800	87,100	91,100	15.6%	17.5%	17.1%
AS Kamen / Bergkamen (A 2)	Kamen Cross	64,500	51,600	71,600	17.7%	17.1%	18.3%
Kamen Cross	AS Bönen (A 2)	74,000	66,100	92,300	20.4%	21.1%	18.8%

Web links

Commons : Kamener Kreuz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kamener Kreuz is free again Completion of the renovation in 2009, article in the Westfalenpost from August 25, 2009

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A 1 A 2 Kamen Cross. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Eight angels for the Kamen Cross , WAZ of August 29, 2011
3. ↑ https://rth.info/news/news.php?id=1070
4. ^ Hans Scheibner: Die Lieder , Membrane Documents 2005, ISBN 3-86562-238-0
5. ↑ Manual road traffic census 2005. (PDF) Results on federal motorways. BASt Statistics, 2005, accessed on January 18, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Manual road traffic census 2010. (PDF) Results on federal motorways. BASt Statistics, 2010, accessed on January 18, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Manual road traffic census 2015. (PDF) Results on federal motorways. BASt Statistics, 2015, accessed on August 25, 2017 .