Müngstener Bridge

Müngstener Bridge
Official name	Müngstener Brücke (until 1918 : Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge)
Convicted	Railway line Wuppertal-Oberbarmen-Solingen
Crossing of	Wupper
place	Solingen , Remscheid ( North Rhine-Westphalia )
Entertained by	DB network
construction	Arch bridge
overall length	465 m
Longest span	170 m
height	107 m
building-costs	2,646,386.25 marks
start of building	February 26, 1894
completion	March 21, 1897
opening	July 15, 1897
planner	Anton von Rieppel
	location

51.160555555556 7.1333333333333Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 38 ″ N , 7 ° 8 ′ 0 ″ E

The Müngstener Brücke (formerly Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge ) is the highest railway bridge in Germany . It spans two tracks between the cities of Remscheid and Solingen at a height of 107 meters over the Wupper valley in the immediate vicinity of the Solingen-Schaberg stop .

The steel arch bridge is part of the Wuppertal-Oberbarmen – Solingen railway line . This is used in regular operation by the S-Bahn line S 7 of the S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr , called Der Müngstener (KBS 458). In the absence of electrification , diesel multiple units are used.

By the end of the monarchy in 1918, the building was named Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge, in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm I . The bridge was then named after the nearby Müngsten settlement , which is now desolate .

history

construction

Construction drawing

Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge 1912

View from the south

In 1893, the preparatory work on the construction site began, and the railway bridge was then completed in 1897 as a steel structure by the MAN plant in Gustavsburg . The first drafts for an arch bridge at this point between the two cities go back to 1889. The six pillars have a maximum height of 69 meters. The central opening of the superstructure, which spans the bottom of the valley, has an average span of 170 meters, the adjoining openings are 30 meters and 45 meters. Pendulum supports are attached above the arch to support the scaffolding bridge . The total length of the steel structure is 465 meters. There were steel sections with a total weight of 5,000 tons installed and 950,000 rivets beaten.

The main arch of the bridge was first erected using the free porch method . This means that the two halves of the arch were completed without further scaffolding up to the end of the arch and, to a certain extent, had the function of a crane themselves for further assembly . The process is characterized by its low production costs, but the static calculation of all loads is complex. The arch itself is stored three times in a statically indeterminate manner, which also results in considerable material savings. Here, too, the cost of materials is lower than in the statically determined arch with three joints , but the arch is additionally stressed by thermal expansion remaining in the structure . This distinguishes the Müngsten Bridge from the optically very similar Garabit Viaduct in the Auvergne in France .

The engineer Anton von Rieppel (1852–1926) was chairman of the board of the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG ( M. A. N. ). His name is recorded on the memorial plaque that was erected at the foot of the bridge at the instigation of the Association of German Engineers and MAN.

Initially, only one track was planned on the bridge, but the then Royal Railway Directorate Elberfeld estimated the expected traffic between Remscheid and Solingen so high that the planning was changed to two tracks. In 1890 the Prussian state parliament approved the necessary construction cost of five million marks. The straight line distance between the two cities is eight kilometers, but before the construction of the Müngsten Bridge, the distance by rail was 42 kilometers. The first groundbreaking took place on February 26th, 1894. In order to get the building materials, the tracks were laid from both cities to the construction site. A total of 1,400 kilograms of dynamite and 1,600 kilograms of black powder were required to carry out the necessary explosions.

A memorial plaque below the Müngstener Bridge commemorates the builders

The completion of the shell (bridge) fell on March 21, 1897, and on the following day, during the topping-out ceremony, the last of around 950,000 rivets set on the construction site were struck. The bridge's official inauguration ceremony took place on July 15, 1897. However, Kaiser Wilhelm II did not come to this event in person, but instead sent his representative, Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia , as an envoy . He himself visited the bridge on August 12, 1899, two years later. A plaque under the bridge still reminds of this today.

Operation and evidence

In 1937 the bridge was painted for the second time. An explosion in April 1945 could be prevented. In 1948 war damage was repaired. At the beginning of the 1960s the entire bridge was repaired, loosened rivets were replaced and the fixed ladders were secured. In 1978 there was a partial repainting.

DMU of 628 series on the bridge Müngstener

Due to bearing damage, the Federal Railway Authority (EBA) ordered a speed limit of 10 km / h, a ban on encounters and a weight restriction on light railcars at the beginning of April 2010 . On March 15, 2010, freight traffic on the bridge was prohibited for the same reason. The EBA had asked the railway to prove the stability of the bridge by September 30, 2010 and to replace the bearings on both sides of the bridge. The condition was also issued to submit a new static calculation by September 30, 2010, which takes into account the existing defects and the consumption of substance by rust. Otherwise the EBA threatened to close the bridge on October 1, 2010. In mid-May 2010, Deutsche Bahn announced that it would recalculate the statics of the bridge by autumn, renovate the defective bridge bearings and weakened parts over a period of five years and paint the bridge in sections with anti-rust paint over the next ten years.

Detail of the rusting steel structure

Measurement drives took place between September 27 and 29, 2010 to check the statics that had been recalculated in the previous months. On the evening of November 19, 2010, DB Netz closed the bridge. By decision of November 23, 2010, the EBA ordered the bridge to be temporarily closed. Passenger traffic between Solingen-Mitte and Remscheid- Güldenwerth was now handled by buses as replacement rail traffic.

In the years before that, the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) as the responsible authority for the regional train Der Müngstener had regularly asked DB Netz about the condition of the system, as the rust problem had become increasingly dramatic. The information from Deutsche Bahn has been wrong for years. According to current railway law, however, the transport authority has no legal status vis-à-vis the infrastructure operator, so that the VRR was not in a position to take legal action.

Deutsche Bahn invests around € 400,000 annually in the maintenance of the structure. On January 31, 2011, Deutsche Bahn announced that the Müngstener Brücke would be completely refurbished over the next five years for 30 million euros. This means that the bridge should be available for passenger traffic for at least another 25 to 30 years.

Two trains from Abellio meet on the Müngsten bridge

At the beginning of May 2011 it was announced that the bridge had been opened for train traffic, but that the rail vehicles of the DB class 628 used on the regional line could not be used. In its application for approval to the Federal Railway Authority, Deutsche Bahn stated a total mass of the trains of 69.9 tons and an axle load of 10.0 tons. The Federal Railway Authority approved an inspection with a maximum mass of 72 tons. However, during test drives it turned out that the trains have an axle load higher than 10.0 tons, so they are not allowed to drive on the bridge. Apart from that, these values refer to the service weight of the 628 series without passengers. New evidence was provided at the end of June. From June 27, 2011, the Müngstener Brücke was reopened for the regional train RB 47 after a blocking period of more than seven months, but from July 7, 2012, a new block was due according to the previous plans. Currently, after a temporary operating permit until 2014 ^[obsolete] by the responsible EBA, the maximum permissible weight is 90 tons and the total axle load of 72 tons has not been changed. Since the end of 2013, new railcars from the new operator Abellio Rail NRW have been in use, for which the previous capacity is insufficient. The railcars have only six instead of the previous eight axles and therefore have a high individual load.

The bridge should be rehabilitated by 2015/16. The estimated costs borne by Deutsche Bahn are 30 million euros. Deutsche Bahn announced longer closures, namely from July 7, 2012 to August 19, 2012, from October 6, 2012 to October 21, 2012, and from April 1, 2013 to November 3, 2013. Because during the Construction work problems with the head plates were discovered, the deadline for the end of the lockdown on November 3rd could not be met. There was an announcement that the bridge would now be closed until June 2014. DB Netz was also unable to keep this date and postponed the reopening for another six months, so that the bridge could not be opened until the timetable change on December 14, 2014. The bridge sections were removed and replaced with new ones. Welding instead of riveting saved around 700 tonnes of weight.

After a further closure of three weeks in July 2015, during which, among other things, 28 roller bearings were replaced, the bridge will be released again from July 27, 2015. By 2018, the bridge was extensively renovated and upgraded, taking into account the protection of historical monuments.

New steel strand anchors have been embedded in the foundations. Additional steel parts are currently being built into the bridge's construction as reinforcement. With these measures, the bridge will again be able to accommodate vehicles with an axle load of up to 21 tons, so that the line can be approved for heavy trains again in the future, probably also with regard to future bridge festivals under steam locomotive operation.

At the moment the bridge is being completely sandblasted and repainted four times. In addition, new fixed ladders and later (as LOS III) new inspection facilities (inspection vehicles) will be installed.

World Heritage

For several years there have been efforts to have the bridge recognized as a World Heritage Site . This is now taking place together with 5 other European bridges.

Myths, anecdotes, and noteworthy items

100 years of Müngsten Bridge - stamp from 1997

The inside of the main girder seen from the Solingen abutment

The construction of the bridge at the end of the 19th century represented an engineering achievement, which in its high-tech construction and implementation stood in stark contrast to the world of experience of the majority of the astonished population. Myths and legends quickly arose in connection with the building, which have been preserved in many minds as true stories (see also modern sagas ) to this day. One of these legends is that of the golden rivet , which is said to be the last to be struck, but has not yet been found.

Another myth is the alleged miscalculation of the bridge by the builder Anton von Rieppel and its supposed consequences. While one myth speaks of the fact that half of the bridge that was built by both sides had to be torn down again because they did not fit together in the middle, the other legend says that von Rieppel erroneously determined during recalculations that the halves did not fit together or the completed bridge would not be able to withstand the loads and, out of shame, fell from the unfinished bridge to his death. Both legends are proven to be false, but are still rumored to this day . According to the construction drawings and calculations, all calculations were completely correct from the start and Anton von Rieppel's life ended naturally, 30 years after the bridge was completed as planned, after a serious illness.

Kaiser Wilhelm II
was also at the bridge in 1899

Although the bridge was christened Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke, Kaiser Wilhelm II did not attend the inauguration ceremony. According to rumors, he boycotted the ceremony of upset about it that the bridge is not in his honor, but the occasion of the centenary of his grandfather I. William was named. Kaiser Wilhelm II did not visit the bridge until August 12, 1899, and a plaque is attached below the bridge to commemorate his visit.

On the occasion of the centenary of the bridge, the wrapping artist Christo was asked by a Remscheid citizen during his stay in Bonn to cover the bridge with rust-colored cloth to present the wrapping of the Berlin Reichstag . But he refused on the grounds that he did not do anything twice. He had covered the Pont Neuf in Paris . He also responded dismissively to the objection that the Pont Neuf was a stone bridge in a city, while the Müngstener Brücke was a steel bridge in the middle of nature. It can be assumed, however, that the construction of the bridge would not have withstood a covering due to the additional wind loads to be expected .

In the episode Peter wants to cross the stream of the show Löwenzahn , the bridge can be seen briefly, but is not named. In Wim Wenders ' film Pina , a dancer is dancing on the meadow below the bridge. In 2011, the ARD morning magazine broadcast the weather report live from the bridge.

Extensive maintenance work was carried out up to 2011, which necessitated renewed approval by the Federal Railway Authority . The empty weight of the trains (72 t) was incorrectly entered in the permit application instead of the total weight (80 t). As a result, operation was only released for light = empty trains. Until clarification, the passengers had to use bus replacement services and the trains drove over the bridge without them. Railway spokesman Udo Kampschulte: "We are left in sackcloth and have to apologize to the passengers."

Bridge park

The Müngstener Bridge, including the new bridge park

As part of the Regionale 2006 , a structural funding program of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a park with a meadow landscape was created under the Müngstener Bridge by 2006. The main attraction is a hand-operated transporter ferry with which passers-by can change the side of the river. There are also a number of steel platforms distributed throughout the park on which topic-specific puzzles and their solutions can be read or heard. The offers created should make the area under the building more attractive for tourists and become a recreational area for the residents of the surrounding cities. In fact, the number of visitors increased after the opening.

Müngsten Bridge Festival

The Müngsten Bridge Festival is celebrated annually on the last weekend in October. Until 2010, visitors were able to travel across the bridge in historic steam trains. Afterwards this was banned due to static problems. After a bridge statics review by DB AG in 2017, the ban on steam locomotives was relaxed. From October 2017 at the latest during the bridge festival, light, small steam locomotives will be allowed to use the bridge for the first time since 2010.

Surroundings of the bridge

Near the Müngstener Brücke on the Remscheid slope near the Reinshagen district there is a viewing pavilion named after the financier August Diederichs Diederichstempel , as well as the Napoleonsbrücke in the Solingen district of Burg on the footpath from the Solinger Strasse car park ( Bundesstrasse 229 and Landesstrasse 74 ).

A few hundred meters west of the Müngstener Brücke there is the Windfelner Brücke shortly before the Solingen-Schaberg train station , which crosses the Bundesstraße 229. From there you have a good view of the “Remscheid city cone”.

literature

Adolf von Berg: The Thalbrücke near Müngsten and the Remscheid - Solingen route . Remscheid 1997 ISBN 3-923495-43-9 .
Ralf Bendig: Müngstener Brücke turns 100 . In: Eisenbahn Magazin . No. 6/1997 . Alba Publication GmbH & Co KG, Munich June 1997, p. 26-31 .
Anton Rieppel: The Thalbrücke near Müngsten . VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-18-400762-6 .
Bernhard Sieper: The Müngstener Bridge . Born publishing house, Wuppertal-Elberfeld.
Dirk Soechting: The railway bridge at Müngsten over the Wupper . Sutton Publishing; Erfurt 2005. ISBN 978-3-89702-892-0 .
Karl Friedrich Walbrach: The creator of the Müngstener Brücke - Anton von Rieppel was born 150 years ago . In: Jahrbuch für Eisenbahngeschichte 34 (2002) , pp. 77–84.
Karl Friedrich Walbrach: The Müngstener Bridge. Surroundings, prehistory, construction and rescue . In: Yearbook for Railway History 36 (2004) , pp. 33–76.
Zeno Pillmann: renovation case over the Wuppergrund . In: Eisenbahn Magazin . No. 4/2016 . Alba Publication GmbH & Co KG, April 2016, ISSN 0342-1902 , p. 34-41 .

Web links

Commons : Müngstener Brücke - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge, Müngsten Photos of the bridge construction in the architecture museum of the TU Berlin
112 years of Müngstener Brücke
The Müngstener Brücke - over the highest railway bridge in Germany!
Information about the Müngstener Bridge and the lines 2700, 2705 and 2675 (KBS 458)
Müngstener Bridge. In: Structurae
The Müngstener Viaduct
Steam locomotives at the bridge festival on the Müngsten bridge
Report by the technical director of the Gustavsburg Bridge Construction Agency, Anton Rieppel, on the construction of the bridge

Individual evidence

↑ This is how the Müngsten Bridge came about. In: eisenbahn-Magazin , issue 4, Munich 2016, p. 37

↑ Solingen: Slow pace ordered ( memento of the original from September 20, 2010 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. . In: Rheinische Post (online edition), April 8, 2010 @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b Müngstener Brücke is threatened with closure . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (online edition), May 29, 2010.

↑ zp / pp: EBA closes Müngstener Brücke - RB service to Abellio . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 1 (2011), p. 6.

↑ Deutsche Bahn announces repair of the Müngsten bridge . In: Remscheider General-Anzeiger , May 14, 2010

↑ Stefan Hennigfeld: DB Netz wants to renovate Müngsten Bridge. Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de, May 26, 2010, accessed on May 28, 2010 .

↑ DB Mobility Logistics AG (Ed.): Measurement runs on Müngstener Bridge successfully completed . Press release from September 30, 2010.

↑ Stefan Hennigfeld: Müngstener Bridge closed - bus traffic set up. Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de, November 19, 2010, accessed on November 19, 2010 .

↑ Received notification of Müngstener Brücke. Deutsche Bahn AG (press release), November 23, 2010, accessed on November 23, 2010 .

↑ Stefan Hennigfeld: Müngstener Brücke: The transport authority needs a legal status. Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de, May 5, 2011, accessed on December 14, 2011 .

↑ Stefan Hennigfeld: The Müngstener bridge in the VRR: From causes and consequences. Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de, June 11, 2012, accessed on June 11, 2012 .

↑ Andreas Tews: Refurbishment for 30 million euros? , In: Solinger Tageblatt (online edition) from February 1, 2011, viewed January 21, 2018

↑ Müngstener Brücke remains closed . FAZ.NET, May 4, 2011.

↑ Jürgen Eikelberg: Müngstener Brücke can be used again with regional trains. Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de, June 21, 2011, accessed on June 21, 2011 .

^ Stefan Hennigfeld: Horst Becker calls for the renovation of the Müngsten bridge. Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de, August 6, 2011, accessed on August 6, 2011 .

↑ Müngstener Brücke: Bahn agrees to complete renovation - without freight traffic . 17th January 2012.

↑ Hans-Peter Meurer: Müngstener Brücke will be completely closed from July 7th. rga, June 4, 2012, accessed June 4, 2012 .

↑ Martin Oberpiller: Müngstener Brücke closed until June 2014? rga, September 12, 2013, accessed October 11, 2013 .

↑ Gerhard Schattat / Jörn Tüffers: Müngstener bridge closed until December. Solinger Tageblatt (online edition), May 8, 2014, accessed on January 21, 2018 .