Lautertal Bridge (A 6)
The Lautertalbrücke is a motorway bridge on the federal motorway 6 ( Saarbrücken - Waidhaus ) north of Kaiserslautern .
location
North of the Kaiserslautern city center, the federal motorway 6, which runs there in an east-west direction, crosses the Lauter valley between the Kaiserslautern-Zentrum and Kaiserslautern-West junctions . For this purpose, the Lautertal bridge was built at a height of 30 meters above the valley floor.
construction
The Lautertal Bridge is a steel construction made of continuous 3.2 meter high beam girders. The bridge with its five openings with a span of 48/56/64/56/48 meters rests on six stamped concrete pillars clad with red sandstone typical of the region . The foundation of two bridge piers had to be carried out between sheet pile walls because of the spring water penetrating into the excavation . The abutments are also made of stamped concrete with sandstone facing.
history
The first plans for a northern bypass of Kaiserslautern were made as early as 1928. The route for the motorway section was paved in 1934. In 1936 the Lautertal Bridge was built by the local ironworks in Kaiserslautern . The section of the motorway between Kaiserslautern-West and Wattenheim was opened on October 24, 1937.
In 1942, work on the Reichsautobahn was finally stopped due to the Second World War. Initially, the line served the German troops as a fast connection to the western front, later the Allies used the line for their advance. The Lautertal Bridge, however, was blown up on the night of March 20, 1945, just a few hours before the American invasion. However, this destruction could not delay the advance of the Americans significantly, the obstacle was simply bypassed by the advancing troops.
The removal of the rubble began as early as 1946, primarily to make the road from Kaiserslautern to Otterbach below usable again. 1,600 tons of steel alone had to be removed here. But only after the city had expanded the east-west axis, the reconstruction of the Lautertal Bridge began, including by Eisenwerke Kaiserslautern. On April 20, 1954, a new section of the bridge collapsed, but nobody was injured. This accident delayed the completion considerably. If the motorway to the east from the junction Kaiserslautern-Ost was ready again in 1951, the Lautertal Bridge was not handed over to traffic until October 15, 1956, without official celebrations.
New building
As part of the three-lane expansion of the motorway between the junction Kaiserslautern West and Kaiserslautern Zentrum, construction of the new valley crossing began in April 2012. This will be built parallel to the south of the old bridges using the incremental launching method. In 2015, after the completion of the new building, the two old bridges were demolished and the second carriageway in the direction of Saarbrücken was completed in their place.
literature
- Roland May : Pontifex maximus. The architect Paul Bonatz and the bridges. Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster iW 2011, ISBN 978-3-86991-176-2 , pp. 322-324, 542f., 621f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from December 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 49 ° 27 ′ 21.6 " N , 7 ° 44 ′ 49.64" E