Main valley bridge Gemünden

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Coordinates: 50 ° 3 ′ 25 ″  N , 9 ° 40 ′ 26 ″  E

Main valley bridge Gemünden
Main valley bridge Gemünden
Convicted
High- speed line from Hanover to Würzburg
Subjugated Main , km 210.75
place Gemünden am Main
construction Prestressed concrete - box girder bridge
overall length 793.5 m
width 14.3 m
Longest span 135 m
Construction height maximum 6.5 m
height 27 m
building-costs 27.2 million Deutschmarks
start of building 1982
completion 1984
opening 1988 (regular operation)
planner Leonhardt, Andrä and Partner
location
Main valley bridge Gemünden (Bavaria)
Main valley bridge Gemünden

The Maintalbrücke Gemünden is a railway bridge on the high-speed line Hanover-Würzburg ( route kilometers 291.0 and 291.8). The structure is located near Gemünden and spans the Main Valley at river kilometer 210.28 at a maximum height of 27 m. A few hundred meters east of the bridge, the Sinn and the Franconian Saale flow into the Main.

With 135 m (above the Main) it has the largest span of a prestressed concrete girder bridge for railway overpasses in Germany. When it opened, it was considered the prestressed concrete railway bridge with the largest span in the world. The gradient falls towards the southern abutment largely at 12.5 per thousand. The lowest point of the Fulda – Würzburg high-speed section is in the area of ​​the bridge.

course

The route runs straight on the bridge. The elevation profile has a trough shape: the gradient changes from a gradient of 12.5 per mille to a gradient of 12.5 per mille. The 5.5 km long Mühlberg tunnel connects to the south of the structure and the 1140 m long single mountain tunnel to the north .

history

planning

A bridge opening at least 135 m wide above the Main had to be created for shipping.

A location was found for the planned bridge in intensive coordination discussions in the 1970s, which became the benchmark for the further planning of the route. The new line and the planned Main Valley bridge were particularly controversial in the Gemünden area. A large number of variants were discussed in the course of the planning. For reasons of landscape protection, a 1165 m long steel truss bridge with a span of 130 m and a height of up to 28 m was initially planned. In the hearing of the plan approval procedure brought u. a. the city of Gemünden raised eight objections to the route section and the associated bridge. One of the main arguments against a steel bridge was an increased level of noise.

On February 11, 1977 around 300 citizens demonstrated against the route in front of the town hall. Choirs repeatedly demanded: “Take the Schnellbahn!” At the end of the demonstration, around 60 demonstrators stormed the town hall and challenged Helmut Maak , Head of the Federal Railway , who had come to the community to talk to the city council. A citizens' initiative collected 7,000 signatures against the route in the same year. The city of Gemünden also refused to provide the Deutsche Bundesbahn with the site for the construction project, as 300 year old oaks were to be felled.

At a panel discussion at the beginning of May 1977, Federal Railway Secretary Maak emphasized that the city of Gemünden was playing a special role in the planning of new routes due to its particularly high level of noise pollution. At the beginning of the planning process, an extensive development ban came into force in the area of ​​the municipality, as the (at that time still provisional) legal limit values ​​for noise emissions in the development areas applied for would be exceeded. The city council also criticized the Main Bridge as preventing Gemünden and Langenprozelten from growing together. At the end of 1977 the planned length of the structure was 1165 m; the course of the elevation (roughly in the middle “bend” with a gradient of 12.5 per thousand on both sides) already corresponded to the course realized later.

At the end of the 1970s, the railway agreed to forego the originally planned steel arch bridge in favor of a girder bridge. In addition, the education and communication intensified, among other things with an exhibition in the main train station in Würzburg. The bridge design was checked and optimized several times using a large model. Was discussed u. a. also to paint the pillars with a color adapted to the landscape. This solution was ultimately ruled out due to doubts about the durability of such a paint. In 1980, a design was finally chosen that was based on the framework planning for valley bridges of the Federal Railway at the time. This envisaged approach bridges with single span girders with a span of 41.50 m, with a haunched three span girder of 75/135/75 m span for the river crossing. The requirements of the Federal Railroad regarding the maximum permissible deformations of the bridge girders led to a construction height of 9 m for the river bridge.

In particular, this mighty beam was rejected by citizens as too "heavy" and too "clumsy". In early 1981, the planners of the new section commissioned Fritz Leonhardt to find an aesthetically better solution. This resulted in today's solution with V-shaped supports. The Brielse Maas Bridge near Rotterdam served as a model . The structure was also technically optimized and, for example, continuous instead of single-span girders were selected for the approach bridges and the span on the approach bridges was increased. The revised variant was checked on a model and was approved by the citizens of Gemünd. In addition, around seven million D-Marks could be saved compared to the original design. The construction chosen deviated in several points from the DIN standard for prestressed concrete. The solution ultimately found was considered to be unusually "slim", that is, the ratio between the span and the construction height was greater than that of the other structures along the route.

Building on this experience, the Leonhardt office was commissioned to optimize other bridges on the new line and to replace single-span girders with continuous girders with slender pillars. This includes the Zeitlofs Sinntal Bridge . Finally, the office was commissioned to revise the framework planning for such bridges.

In autumn 1981 the planned length of the bridge was 811 m.

In the planning and construction phase, the structure was located in construction kilometers 274 and 275.

construction

The southern dam in front of the bridge has been completed, while construction work on the Main Valley Bridge is in progress in the background (1980s).

The construction contract for the bridge was awarded in early 1982 to a consortium of the companies Mayreder and Max Streicher (Deggendorf). The technical lead was with Max Streicher KG.

The overpass was completed in around 30 months from April 1982, at construction costs of around 27 million D-Marks .

The 14.3 m wide structure consists of the southern and northern approach bridges and the river bridge in between. The northern 330.50 m (foreland bridge north) and the southern 164.00 m (foreland bridge south) were built by Streicher using the incremental launching method . The middle 299.00 m (river bridge) were erected in cantilever construction by Mayreder. Between the northern abutment and the one-time mountain tunnel, an artificial dam was built flat from the excavated material from the tunnel.

On October 19, 1983, the last section of the bridge was concreted. It was considered to be the longest-span prestressed concrete railway bridge in the world.

There is an amateur film on YouTube about the construction of the bridge.

business

Test drives north of the bridge (April 1987)

In the course of the ICE world record run on May 1st, 1988 , the previous ICE train InterCityExperimental reached a speed of 405 km / h on the bridge. Scheduled passenger and freight trains have been using the bridge since the timetable change at the end of May 1988.

construction

The double-track bridge has a total span of 793.5 m and, in addition to the Main , crosses a country road to the left of the Main and the Main-Spessart-Bahn and Bundesstraße 26 on the right side of the Main . A special feature of this bridge is that it also bridges a 110 kV traction current overhead line from DB Energie on the left side of the Main .

Power bridge

The 299 m long river bridge with spans of 82 m + 135 m + 82 m is a frame structure, the main pillars of which are V-shaped on the river bank. The maximum 6.5 m high superstructure is monolithically connected to the pillars. This reduces the effective span to 108 m and the construction height of the superstructure, a prestressed concrete box girder, is only 4.5 m in the middle of the river. The 5.4 m wide floor slab of the superstructure is a maximum of 1.5 m thick in the area of ​​the V-supports, the upper deck slab 55 cm. The 20 m high frame standards have a run-up of 1:20, are 6.0 m wide at the top and 8.0 m at the bottom. There they rest on 40 cm wide concrete joints arranged below the site . For a short-term replacement of the bridge, these are separated and the structure moved to the side. The V pillars have a flat foundation on the rock. Was built in the flow bridge in the cantilever , while an auxiliary support has been arranged for the purpose of stabilizing the land side.

Northern approach bridges

Cross section of the superstructure

The northern approach bridges are characterized by two three-span continuous girders with spans of (52.5 m + 2 × 55.0 m) and (2 × 55.0 m + 58.0 m). The construction height is uniformly 4.5 m. The production took place in the incremental launching process using auxiliary supports. The continuous beams are separated on the third pillar by an expansion joint . This separating pillar has external dimensions of 4.0 m × 6.4 m at the pier head and, in addition to the abutments and the V-supports, dissipates the braking forces. In addition, this and the other two dividing pillars, pillars 6 and 9 rail extensions are arranged. The remaining bridge piers have external dimensions of 2.7 m × 6.4 m at the pier head. All pillars have an accessible hollow cross-section with rounded outer corners and a 1:70 approach and are founded on bored piles .

Southern approach bridge

The southern approach bridge consists of a continuous beam with three fields and spans of (2 × 55.0 m + 54.0 m). Its construction corresponds to the northern approach bridges.

Award

In a ceremony at the University of Karlsruhe on January 26, 1989, the publishing house for architecture and technical sciences Ernst & Sohn honored the building and Leonhardt, Andrä and Partner as planners with the German Engineering Prize. In addition to the technical execution, the design and environmental compatibility of the project were also recognized. The jury praised the “restrained yet striking construction that blends harmoniously into the landscape”. The undoped prize was awarded every two years for outstanding engineering structures.

literature

  • Knut Reimers and Wilhelm Linkerhägner: Paths into the future. New construction and expansion lines of the DB . Hestra Verlag Darmstadt, 1987. ISBN 3-7771-0200-8
  • Fritz Leonhardt, Wilhelm Zellner, Peter Noack: The Main Valley Bridge near Gemünden (Main) on the new Hanover – Würzburg line. A building that points towards the future for railway bridge construction . Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau , 32 (1983), pp. 379-386

Web links

Commons : Maintalbrücke Gemünden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Günter Schab: Main Bridge Gemünden: Construction implementation and auxiliary construction measures in the area of ​​the river bridge . In: Mayreder Zeitschrift , Volume 28, August 1983, no page number
  2. ↑ New section Fulda - Würzburg completed . In: Eisenbahn-Journal . Issue 06/1988, ISSN  0720-051X , pp. 4–10.
  3. ^ A b Horst J. Obermayer: New routes for the InterCityExpress . In: Herrmann Merker (Ed.): ICE - InterCityExpress at the start . Hermann Merker Verlag, Fürstenfeldbruck 1991, ISBN 3-922404-17-0 , pp. 57-69.
  4. ↑ a b Wolfgang Harprecht, Friedrich Kießling, Reinhard Seifert: "406.9 km / h" - world record on the rail - energy transmission during the record run of the ICE of the DB . In: Elektro Bahnen , 86th year, issue 9/1988, p. 270 f.
  5. ↑ a b Deutsche Bundesbahn, Federal Railway Directorate Nuremberg, Project Group Hanover – Würzburg South of the Bahnbauzentrale (publisher): New Hanover – Würzburg line. The southern section Fulda – Würzburg , brochure (40 pages), April 1986, pages 26, 28
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Helmut Maak: Design and long-shaft integration of the bridges . In: Gerd Lottes (Ed.): On new rails through Spessart and Rhön . Hans-Christians Druckerei, Hamburg, 1992, without ISBN, ( Nature and Technology , Volume 6) pp. 69–82.
  7. ^ A b Helmut Maak : The draft of the new Hanover - Würzburg line, section of the Hessian / Bavarian border - Würzburg . In: Die Bundesbahn , year 53 (1977), issue 12, pp. 883-893, ISSN  0007-5876
  8. ↑ Gemünden provides eight objections to the construction of the Hanover – Gemünden line for the government's public hearing . In: Main-Echo , May 3, 1977
  9. ^ Demonstration in pouring rain. Watch out is now the motto . In: Main-Echo , February 14, 1977, p. 14.
  10. ↑ a b The Federal Railroad did not think of people when planning the route . In: Gemündener Tagblatt ( Main-Echo ), May 7, 1977, p. 19.
  11. ↑ BUNDESBAHN: Stattkino . In: Der Spiegel . No. 53 , 1977, pp. 57-59 ( Online - Dec. 26, 1977 ).
  12. ↑ No tangible results when talking to the Federal Railroad delegation . In: Main-Echo , February 14, 1977
  13. ↑ The new railway line is not approved in the village . In: Main-Echo , April 22, 1977
  14. ↑ Silence of proceedings as DB planning progresses . In: Bayerische Staatszeitung , April 18, 1980, p. 4
  15. ↑ a b c Fritz Leonhardt : Main bridge Gemünden - railway bridge made of prestressed concrete with 135 m span . In: Beton- und Stahlbetonbau , Volume 81, Issue 1, pp. 1–8.
  16. ↑ a b Claus Jürgen Diederichs : Laudation . In: Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Faculty of Structural Engineering (Ed.): Festschrift on the occasion of the award of an honorary doctorate to Dipl.-Ing. Helmut Maak . Wuppertal, ISBN 3-925795-41-3 , 1987, pp. 9-13.
  17. ^ Fritz Leonhardt : Master builder in a revolutionary time . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart, 1984, ISBN 3-421-02815-X , p. 300 f.
  18. ^ Helmut Maak: New Hanover – Würzburg line, start of construction in the southern section . In: The Federal Railroad . Vol. 57, No. 10, 1981, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 801-806.
  19. ↑ Helmut Maak : The new federal railway line between Main and Spessart (southern section Hanover – Würzburg) . In: Internationales Verkehrwesen , Volume 36 (1984), Issue 2 (March / April), pp. 126–132, ISSN  0020-9511
  20. ↑ Explosives give the Federal Railroad a perspective . In: Main-Post Würzburg, No. 99, 1982, April 30, 1982
  21. ↑ a b message Widest-span prestressed concrete railway bridge in the world completed . In: Railway technical review . 12, No. 12, 1983, p. 786.
  22. ^ Karl Kagerer: The new line in the landscape . In: Gerd Lottes (Ed.): On new rails through Spessart and Rhön . Hans-Christians Druckerei, Hamburg, 1992, without ISBN, ( Nature and Technology , Volume 6) pp. 83–94.
  23. ↑ Announcement of the engineering work of the Maintalbrücke Gemünden awarded . In: The Federal Railroad. Vol. 65, No. 2, 1989, ISSN  0007-5876 , p. 190.
  24. ↑ Main-Echo Aschaffenburg , March 2, 1989