North Bridge (Vienna)

Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 18 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 48 ″  E

North bridge
use	Motorway feeder A 22
Convicted	Danube bank motorway
Crossing of	Danube New Danube
Subjugated	Danube bank motorway
place	Vienna , districts Brigittenau and Floridsdorf
overall length	935 m
Longest span	80 m
vehicles per day	100,000
building-costs	10 million euros
start of building	1962
opening	December 19, 1964
location

Location of the Northwest Railway Bridge with the Northwest Railway running on it from Vienna Northwest Station to Vienna Jedlersdorf.

Northwest railway bridge of the kk priv. Oesterr. North-West Railway over the Danube , elevation and floor plan, 1872

The north bridge is the northernmost bridge over the Danube in Vienna (at river kilometer 1932.6) and part of the Danube bank A 22 motorway . It has four lanes and connects the districts of Brigittenau and Floridsdorf . In Floridsdorf it is connected to the A 22, Prager Straße (B 3), Brünner Straße (B 7) and Lundenburger Gasse (B 229). In Brigittenau it has a connection to the Donaulände and the Handelskai via the Nussdorfer Bridge , out of town it has a connection to Nußdorf , Kahlenbergerdorf and Klosterneuburg (B 14).

The Vienna North Bridge with numerous graffiti in the area of ​​the New Danube as seen from the Floridsdorf side

history

Nordwestbahnbrücke (railway)

The construction of the single-track, 810-meter-long bridge on the Northwest Railway was dependent on the final plans for regulating the Danube . It was built between 1870 and 1872 according to plans by Building Director Wilhelm Hellwag and Chief Inspector Eduard Gerlich . Belgian welding iron from the factories of Josse Coffin in Clabecq near Brussels and de Lexhy near Liège served as the material .

The river bridge of the Nordwestbahnbrücke was built with four openings of the same size, each 79.8 meters, and the inundation bridge in the area of ​​the future flood area with 14 openings of the same size, each 29.65 meters, before the Danube regulation. On the right bank of the Danube in the area of ​​today's Handelskai, a temporary wooden bridge was added. This was only replaced by a permanent iron bridge after the regulation work had been completed and the bank line had been established. Preparations for construction began in May 1870, and the actual construction work finally began in August. Work on the foundation of the first pillar of the river bridge began on October 1st of the same year using a caisson. The foundations of all 19 pillars of the inundation bridge were erected between October 10, 1870 and November 9, 1871.

On August 23, 1871, the assembly of the bridge construction of the river bridge began and was completed on January 10, 1872. Work on the inundation bridge began on June 27, 1871. The assembly work on the supporting structure was completed in mid-February 1872. The endurance test using six passenger and six freight locomotives each, each weighing 61.95 and 60.05 tons per locomotive, took place on May 22nd and 23rd, 1872. On June 1, 1872, the Vienna (Nordwestbahnhof) - Jedlersee section of the bridge using the bridge was opened to public transport for the transport of people, luggage and express goods, and goods traffic was released four weeks later on July 1.

An ice rush after construction began was so strong that one of the bridge piers of the single-track bridge was so badly damaged that it had to be rebuilt. The bridge was damaged again during a flood on July 11, 1903. A dredger anchored near Langenzersdorf broke loose and was driven against the bridge, which was damaged by the impact, while the dredger sank above the Floridsdorfer bridge . After an initial check and a test drive, the bridge was initially released for rail traffic. With the repair, the Albert Milde & Comp. instructed.

A passage in the concession document gave the state administration the right to require the kk privileged Austrian Northwest Railway to double-track parts of the route in the event of economic success. In 1895 this right was used, which the railway company bowed to after losing a legal dispute. In May 1905 the Ministry of Transport finally ordered the submission of a project for the double-track expansion of the bridge.

In order to meet this requirement, a second bridge had to be built downstream, parallel to the existing Danube crossing. The spatial arrangement of the new building also corresponded to this bridge:

• Vorbrücke: 22.2 meters clearance to span the railway line at the Handelskai.
• Quay bridge: 79.8 meters clear width to cross Brigittenau station of the kk state railways.
• River bridge: four openings with a clearance of 79.62 meters, 79.56 meters, 79.65 meters and 79.77 meters
• Inundation bridge: 14 openings with an average of 29.6 meters clear width over the flood plain at the time.

The construction of the new bridge was made easier by the fact that the foundations of the bridge piers were dimensioned large enough during the construction of the first bridge to enable double-track expansion.

In July 1906 the project was subjected to a political inspection and a negotiation under water law. Construction work began in 1907 after an official order at the end of January that year had ordered the bridge to be completed by the end of 1908 at the latest. The Vienna-based construction company, Brothers Redlich and Berger, was commissioned to erect the pillars, the completion of which was agreed for October 31, 1907.

At the request of the City of Vienna, an 864-meter-long and 1.9-meter-wide pedestrian walkway, which also carried a water pipe and various cables, was erected and attached to the downstream side of the bridge using brackets. This electrically lit walkway was accessible via three staircases. The plans for the bridge and the footbridge were drawn up by the management of the Austrian Northwest Railway, those for the staircases come from the Vienna City Planning Department. The cost of the pedestrian walkway was borne by the municipality of Vienna.

The supporting structures of the bridge itself, like those of the already existing bridge, were formed from parallel lattice girders. The material required was obtained from factories in

• Witkowitz ,
• Karlshütte,
• Trzynitz,
• Oderberg (Hahn),
• Assling ,
• Donawitz,
• Zeltweg,
• Zöptau and
• Kladno delivered while the bridge-building workshops
• Wittkowitz the fore bridge and the Stromfeld II,
• Teschen the quay bridge,
• Ig. Gridl the Stromfeld III,
• R. Ph. Waagner, A. Biro and J. Kurz the current field IV, the current field V and the inundation openings 4 to 7,
• Zöptau the inundation openings 1 to 3,
• the Bohemian-Moravian Bridge Construction Company installed inundation openings 8 to 10 and
• Skoda in Pilsen built the inundation openings 11 to 14.

On January 3, 1908, the assembly of the front bridge began at the same time as the steel construction work on the new railway bridge. The work on the inundation bridge followed on February 12th and was completed on May 8th with the dismantling of the last scaffolding on May 8th, 1908. With the insertion of an auxiliary bridge for the construction of the river bridge on June 15, work on the river bridge began. Regulations from the relevant authorities, late deliveries of materials and various problems delayed the completion of the bridge on schedule. On January 25, 1909, the last scaffolding was removed from field III.

The first main inspection and testing of the bridge and the pedestrian walkway took place between March 3 and 11, 1909.

The new bridge over the Danube was opened to traffic on April 22, 1909, just in time for the introduction of the summer timetable on May 1, 1909. After the completion of the staircases, the laying of the water pipe and the watering of the footbridge, the pedestrian footbridge was also opened on November 24th of that year.

The older of the two tracks was shut down in 1924 after passenger handling in the north-west station had ceased. In 1930 it was dismantled after a rapid transit railway project failed.

Of the bridges blown up by the German Wehrmacht when they withdrew from Vienna (on April 8, 1945 by the Army Pioneer Brigade 127 ), it was the easiest to restore, so that it could be put back into operation on August 25, 1945. It also took up the traffic of the northern railway and the Kaiser- Franz-Josefs-Bahn . However, it could only be driven on at a maximum speed of 10 kilometers per hour. Therefore, the Austrian Federal Railways decided in autumn 1949 to renew the supporting structures of the older bridge concerned. This work was completed in May 1950. The pedestrian walkway was reopened on April 14, 1951 by Vice Mayor Karl Honay .

After the Nordbahnbrücke was put back into operation and passenger handling at the Nordwestbahnhof was finally stopped, the Nordwestbahnbrücke was shut down.

North bridge (road bridge)

Beginning of the north bridge

In the years 1962 to 1964, the railway bridge was converted into a 935 meter long road bridge using the existing bridge girders at a cost of 140 million schillings (approximately 10,175,000 euros) after the City of Vienna removed the bridge and the disused railway line from the then Federal Ministry for Transport and Electricity.

After the renovation of the bridge piers between August 1961 and April 1962, the actual river bridge for Vienna was then built for the first time using the so-called composite steel construction and pushed in from the right bank towards Floridsdorf. At the same time, this bridge was the first so-called deck bridge - no structural parts above the roadway - in Vienna.

The flood bridge (inundation bridge) over the floodplain in the area of ​​today's Danube Island and the quay bridge over the Handelskai and the Brigittenau train station on the right bank of the Danube had to be completely rebuilt.

Construction companies were

• Universals,
• Waagner-Biro
• VOEST and the
• Wiener Brückenbau AG .

On February 5, 1964, the new bridge was named "North Bridge" by the responsible municipal council committee.

By resolution of the Austrian National Council, the new traffic structure was named a federal road. This act became legally effective through a federal law of June 23, 1964.

On December 1, 1964, the stress test was carried out with the help of 60 trucks (total weight 600 tons) from the vehicle fleet of the City of Vienna. The opening took place on December 19, 1964.

Between 1995 and 1997, the north bridge, one of the busiest road bridges in Central Europe with around 100,000 vehicles per day, was completely renovated.

In order to prevent traffic chaos during this work, the Nordsteg , today Steinitzsteg , was built as a diversion route . Since the construction work was completed, this has served as a walkway and bike path.

Legal change

In 2002, all federal highways , with the exception of motorways and expressways , were handed over to the federal states. The north bridge including the adjoining motorway feeder to Brünner Strasse , which was previously part of the Danube Canal federal road B 227, remained under federal administration. The route became part of the Danube bank A 22 motorway and therefore required a vignette . This met with incomprehension from many Viennese drivers who believed they were victims of a fundraising campaign. They argued that their job situation forced them to cross the north bridge, but would otherwise not drive a meter of the motorway, which would incur disproportionately high costs. The legislature, however, invoked that the adjustment would have been necessary in order to comply with the regulations of the European road cost directive . At that time, however, this only existed as a - not legally binding - draft.

A22 feeder north bridge

The extension of the A 22 feeder north bridge

The elevated road that adjoins the north bridge in Floridsdorf is usually also referred to as the north bridge. Since there were regular long backlogs at the previous end (crossing platform B 3 / B 7), it was hoped that an extension of approx. 1 km and an additional integration into the B 7 (Brünner Straße) further north (crossing platform B 7 / B 229) unbundling and defusing the traffic situation. After extensive planning, the construction work began in December 2004, and in September 2006 the extension of the A 22 was opened. With the commissioning of the extended north bridge, a new connection between Brünner Straße and Prager Straße was established, closing the gap in the B 3 Donau Straße .

See also

• Danube bank motorway

literature

• M (oritz) Morawitz: The Danube bridge of the Austrian (Eichische) Nordwestbahn . In: Wilhelm Tinter (Red.): Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects . Issue 11/1872 (XXIV. Year), ZDB -ID 2534647-7 . Waldheim, Vienna 1872, pp. 301–309, plates 24 ff. - (PDF; 8.1 MB) .
• Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects , Vienna, issue 45, 1910 (page 689).
• Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects , Vienna, issue 46, 1910 (page 701).

Web links

Commons : Nordbrücke  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Announcements. (...) Announcement regarding the behavior and caution when navigating the Danube in the current route between Nussdorf and Floridsdorf during the construction of the railway bridge undertaken by the Austrian (Imperial and Royal) Northwestern Railway. In:  Official Journal of the Wiener Zeitung , No. 124/1871, May 14, 1871, p. 641, column 2 above. (Online at ANNO ). .
• The north bridge in Vienna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oesterr. Northwest Railway. On June 1st (...). In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 2789/1872, May 31, 1872, p. 7, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). .
2. ↑ Volkswirthschaftliche Zeitung. (...) Opening of a railway line. In:  Das Vaterland , No. 178/1872 (XIIIth year), July 2, 1872, p. 3, column 3 middle. (Online at ANNO ). .
3. ↑ Josef Walter: Damage to the north-west railway bridge over the Danube as a result of the flood in July 1903 . In: Konstantin von Popp (Red.): Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects . Issue 42/1903 (LV. Year), ZDB -ID 2534647-7 . Self-published, Vienna 1903, p. 547 f. - (PDF; 39.2 MB) .
4. ↑ The Northwest Railway Bridge restored . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna May 6, 1950, p. 6 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ The footbridge at the Nordwestbahnbrücke opened . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 15, 1951, p. 4 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
6. ↑ (caption :) The work on the old north-west railway bridge (...) . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 7, 1962, p. 6 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
7. ↑ FAQ on the vignette system ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) vignette.at (ASFINAG)
8. ↑ Crazy! Toll on bridges! - No April Fool's joke! ( Memento from July 10, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) donaukurier.at