Kennedy Bridge (Bonn)

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View of the Kennedy Bridge from the south (2006)
The renovated Kennedy Bridge with the solar system on the south side (August 2013)
View from the Beueler Ufer (November 2011)
Aerial view of the Kennedy Bridge

The Kennedy Bridge is the middle of the three Rhine bridges in Bonn and connects the centers of Bonn and Beuel . The main road 56 , two tram tracks as well as footpaths and bike paths run over the 394 m long and 26.80 m wide bridge .

The bridge was built in 1948/49 on the pillars of the old Rhine bridge , which was destroyed in 1945 during World War II , and was given its current name in 1963. From 2007 to 2010 the bridge was widened.

history

On the site of the old Rhine bridge, today's Rhine bridge was built in 1948/49, which was named "Kennedy Bridge" in 1963 in honor of John F. Kennedy . The executing companies were Stahlbau Rheinhausen and the civil engineering company Grün & Bilfinger . The official laying of the foundation stone took place with the installation of the first section of the bridge on March 8, 1949. On September 6, 1949, the basic structure was completed. After the road surface and other work had also been completed, the bridge was opened to traffic on November 12th. At the time of its opening, it was the most widely spanned girder bridge over the Rhine. A real Bonn original, the famous little bridge man , was taken over from the old Rhine bridge and attached to a pillar of the bridge.

construction

The originally 18 m wide structure spans the Rhine with one arch and two semi-arches. The middle arch has a span of 195.80 m, the two outer half-arches a span of 99.20 m each. As an alternative to the invitation to tender, Stahlbau Rheinhausen also submitted the draft of a conventional lattice girder version , but the decision was made for the more modern variant of a laterally closed girder grating bridge . The construction height of the four open sheet metal girders spaced 3.85 m apart is 11.00 m above the pillars and 3.45 m in the middle of the bridge. The height of the river pillars is 9.00 m.

Renovation and renovation

In 2003, severe corrosion damage was found under the footpaths. Until a renovation, these areas were secured by temporary wooden structures. According to another report in September 2005, the sidewalks and cycle paths were completely closed for safety reasons. Pedestrian and bicycle traffic now moved on the two outer lanes; Cars, buses and trains drove on the inner lane. In the same month, the City Council of Bonn decided to renovate and widen it at the earliest possible point in time. The financing of the project had meanwhile been secured in negotiations with the federal and state governments about a so-called "financing connection" to the Bad Godesberg location. According to the plans at the time, the entire project was to cost 37 million euros, of which the city of Bonn had to bear 12 million itself.

The construction work comprised by the two-sided growing einstegiger -beams a widening of the bridge to 26.8 m. In addition, the old construction had to be reinforced and renovated. The old roller bearings were replaced by new ones due to the grandfathering.

After a necessary tender, the renovation began on April 16, 2007 and should be completed in April 2010. During the construction work, a track area separated from the rest of the traffic was created for the trams and trams, which will speed up line 66 in particular to the Siegburg ICE train station . Because of the narrowed lanes and for safety reasons, the bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic on events such as New Year's Eve , Rhine in Flames and during storm Kyrill . There was fear that the barriers would be thrown into the river. Pedestrians could use the numerous bus routes that stopped at the bridge ends free of charge.

Kennedy Bridge during the installation of the solar system (April 2011)

After delays due to weather conditions in the winter of 2009/10 and further difficulties, the full approval was not given until November 12, 2010 and the final completion in June 2011. The completion of the four-year construction work was sealed with a bridge festival on July 3, 2011. The costs were higher than planned, according to the latest status they amounted to at least 51.4 million euros instead of the estimated 41.8 million.

From March to April 2011, a solar power system was installed on the south side of the Kennedy Bridge - across the entire width of the structure - which is said to be the first on a river bridge in Europe. It was donated by the local Solarworld AG . A display board shows the electricity yield. The feed-in tariff to be expected is donated annually to a changing local organization according to the sponsor's will.

literature

  • Helmut Vogt : City, Country, River, Occupying Power. The construction of the Bonn Rhine Bridge (1946–1949) as a joint task . In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter. Yearbook of the Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein , Volume 57/58, 2008, ISSN  0068-0052 , pp. 405-439. [only partially evaluated for this article]
  • City of Bonn (ed.): The New Rhine Bridge , Ferd. Dümmler Verlag, Bonn 1949

Web links

Commons : Kennedy Bridge  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Helmut Vogt: City, Country, River, Occupying Power. The construction of the Bonn Rhine Bridge (1946–1949) as a joint task
  2. ↑ "The Bröck is widde do". In: General-Anzeiger Bonn. Volume 116, December 29, 2006, page 10.
  3. ^ City of Bonn (ed.): Die Neue Rheinbrücke , Dümmler Verlag, Bonn 1949 (pp. 39–41)
  4. ^ Website of the city of Bonn
  5. ↑ Press release of the City of Bonn from June 24, 2011 ( Memento of the original from February 16, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bonn.de
  6. ↑ Press release of the City of Bonn from July 3, 2011 ( Memento of the original from February 16, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bonn.de
  7. ↑ www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de: Kennedybrücke: released in June
  8. ↑ Press release of the City of Bonn from June 9, 2010
  9. ↑ Press release of the City of Bonn from March 30, 2011 ( Memento of the original from February 16, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bonn.de
  10. ^ Photo of the display board on a private website ( Memento from May 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Generate donations with the Kennedy Bridge ; General-Anzeiger Bonn, April 4, 2011
The next bridge upstream:
Konrad-Adenauer-Brücke 		Bridges over the Rhine The next bridge downstream:
Friedrich-Ebert-Brücke

Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 17 ″  N , 7 ° 6 ′ 33 ″  E