Pfaffendorfer Bridge
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 11 ″ N , 7 ° 36 ′ 17 ″ E
 Pfaffendorfer Bridge
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| use | Federal road | |
| Convicted | Bundesstrasse 49 | |
| Crossing of | Rhine | |
| place | Koblenz | |
| Entertained by | City administration Koblenz, civil engineering office | |
| construction | Girder bridge | |
| overall length | 311.32 m | |
| Longest span | 104.56 m | |
| vehicles per day | 30,000 | |
| start of building | 1862, 1952 | |
| completion | 1864, 1953 | |
| opening | June 3, 1864 | |
| location | ||
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| Road map of the Koblenz area | ||
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The Pfaffendorfer Bridge is the oldest bridge over the Rhine in Koblenz . It enables the Rhine to be crossed on the B 49 and connects the city center with the districts of Pfaffendorf and Ehrenbreitstein . A first bridge over the Rhine was completed for the railway in 1864 . After it was converted into a road bridge in 1934 and destroyed in the war in 1945, today's bridge was built in 1953. Due to bridge damage, a complete new construction of the Rhine crossing is planned from 2019.
history
Railway bridge
A column in the Rheinanlagen (opposite the Weindorf ) still reminds of the first construction of the Coblenz Rhine Bridge , as it was called at the time, in the years 1862 to 1864. The inscription on the front of the column names the day the foundation stone was laid under the rule of King Wilhelm I. , November 11, 1862 and the day of inauguration, May 9, 1864. A document walled up in one of the bridge piers on the occasion of the inauguration surfaced again in France in 2015, probably after the Second World War from a French soldier recovered from the rubble of the bridge; it is now in the Koblenz City Archives .
The first permanent Rhine bridge after the Römerbrücke (49 AD) in Koblenz was built according to plans by the railway engineer Emil Hermann Hartwich on behalf of the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft . It was initially a pure railway bridge over which the trains ran to Niederlahnstein . From here there was a connection to Oberlahnstein to the Nassau Rheinbahn since 1864 . It thus connected the network of the left with the previously built southern section of the right Rhine route . With three arches made of wrought iron, each arch 97 m long, it spanned the Rhine. The height of the arches was 3.14 m. The arches towered over the roadway. The architectural design of the two 10 m high fortress towers was carried out by Johann Heinrich Strack . These sealed off the two ends of the bridge, had iron gates and could be closed. In addition, the connection on the right bank of the Rhine was secured by the Horchheim gate fortifications that were built between 1864 and 1867 and connected to the port of Ehrenbreitstein. Contemporaries called the bridge “Germany's most beautiful iron bridge”. Their construction later served as a model for the Duisburg-Hochfelder railway bridge completed in 1873 .
Transport policy negotiations between Prussia and the Duchy of Nassau preceded the construction of the bridge . In addition to the existing railway line on the left bank of the Rhine, Prussia wanted another one in the hinterland on the right bank of the Rhine, which would not have been interrupted so quickly by enemy advances in the event of a war with France. Nassau, on the other hand, advocated a line directly on the right bank of the Rhine. On the other hand, Nassau was looking for a way to connect its rail network with the line on the left bank of the Rhine. The agreement resulted in the Nassau concession for the Lahn Valley Railway from Prussian Wetzlar through Nassau territory to Koblenz on the one hand and the construction of the Pfaffendorfer Bridge on the other. During the construction period of the Pfaffendorfer Bridge, the Stolzenfels – Oberlahnstein trajectory was used as an interim solution for the early connection of the left and right Rhine route .
After the German War of 1866, the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia. Now the right stretch of the Rhine has been extended further north via Ehrenbreitstein to Deutz . This required a branch from the Pfaffendorfer Bridge to the north. For this purpose, a curved viaduct was built in 1869 , which cut through the Horchheim gate fortifications.
Originally, the Pfaffendorfer Bridge was not open to vehicle and pedestrian traffic, but as early as 1865, the southern side could be used for general traffic for hours when no trains were running. It was not until the Horchheimer railway bridge was built in 1879 that the south side was completely left open to general traffic.
In 1899 the bridge was left entirely to the Coblenz tram company , which was given the opportunity to expand its transport network on the right bank of the Rhine. The last railway trains crossed the Pfaffendorfer Bridge at the beginning of the First World War in August 1914.
Construction of the Pfaffendorfer Bridge around 1863
The Pfaffendorfer Bridge 1865
The railway bridge in an illustration by Caspar Scheuren (1866)
Painting by Paul Meyerheim (1873/1876)
The former railway viaduct (now the north access) on the Pfaffendorfer side
Conversion to a road bridge
In 1932 the city of Koblenz took possession of the Pfaffendorfer Bridge and decided to convert the bridge, which was almost a new building. The converted road bridge was completed in 1934. With four lanes and two pedestrian paths, it reached a total width of 16 m. The bridge towers were torn down, and a new access ramp was added to the municipal festival hall , with part of the Rhine connection barracks being built over. On the right bank of the Rhine, a concrete slab was laid over the vaults of the old railway ramp as a roadway; next to the departure ramp, an access via the railway line to the Ehrenbreitstein - Lahnstein bypass road (now the B 42 ) was built.
War destruction and new construction
Like all Koblenz bridges, the Pfaffendorfer Bridge was blown up on March 7, 1945 by the retreating units of the Wehrmacht . At the beginning of 1946 the construction of a temporary bridge began. The approval for the reconstruction of a new permanent Rhine bridge was given in 1950. A steel beam bridge had been chosen. The new construction of the Pfaffendorfer Bridge should exclude the restoration of the ship bridge forever. The new bridge was given a four-lane carriageway, adjacent cycle paths of 1.60 m and sidewalks of 2.60 m wide on both sides. On July 18, 1953, the bridge was opened to traffic. The temporary bridge was broken off.
In the early 1960s, the connection on the inner city side was reorganized. After the municipal festival hall was torn down in 1952 and replaced by the Rhein-Mosel-Halle , which was moved to the rear, the Barbara monument had to give way to the new traffic planning in 1956 . This created a connection to the Friedrich-Ebert-Ring and Neustadt without crossing . However, this did not solve the city's pressing traffic problem. Drivers who came from the Hunsrückhöhenstraße (B 327) and wanted to continue into the Westerwald (B 49) had to use the bottleneck over the Pfaffendorfer bridge, which led to traffic jams in the city center. The bottleneck or bottleneck on the Pfaffendorf side in particular caused these traffic problems. The construction of a makeshift bridge in this area, which guided the vehicles coming from Ehrenbreitstein onto the bridge, brought only minor improvement. The solution for long-distance traffic, but also for local and inner-city traffic, was the construction of the spacious southern bypass with a new Rhine bridge, the southern bridge, which was completed in 1975 .
In order to create a junction-free connection to the B 42 on the eastern side of the bridge , the 265 m long Glockenberg tunnel was opened on June 27, 2003 after a construction period of twelve years . Its construction also involved the renewal of the access roads leading over the railway line and Emser Strasse, which were no longer sufficient for the increased traffic and were severely damaged. This finally eliminated the bottleneck on the Pfaffendorf side.
Bridge damage and new construction
On October 1, 2008, the ramp leading from the north to the Pfaffendorfer Bridge, which leads over the former railway viaduct, was closed to traffic due to the acute risk of collapse. After the damage had been temporarily repaired, this area was released on November 27, 2009.
As with the Europabrücke in Koblenz , it became known in May 2011 that the Pfaffendorfer Bridge was also showing severe damage. The Rhine bridge, which consists of four parts (river bridge, bridge road, foreland bridge and cycle path bridge), has been damaged in different ways. In particular, the access roads (bridges road on the right bank of the Rhine and foreland bridge on the left bank of the Rhine) urgently need to be renewed. Since upgrading appears to be uneconomical, a completely new construction of the Rhine crossing is under discussion. In the work planned for 2019, it must be ensured that the historical substructures are listed and must be preserved. In order to keep the important traffic artery open, which is used by around 30,000 vehicles every day, the new bridge structure is to be built next to the current bridge and then moved. In July 2014, the renovation of steel elements of the transition structure began in order to keep the bridge safe for traffic until the planned new construction from 2019. The bridge over the Neustadt from 1961 at the connection on the inner city side is also damaged and has to be supported until it is rebuilt. Due to the serious damage, this bridge may have to be renewed before the actual river bridge is built.
The new construction will also be complicated because the current requirements of shipping must be observed, which probably means that the old river pillars have to be removed and rebuilt with a greater distance from each other, the construction of a bridge without a support in the river area would be possible, would require a pylon construction like the Raiffeisenbrücke in Neuwied , which is not possible in Koblenz because of the effects on the cityscape and landscape. The width of the bridge is also to be increased, and a better orientation towards the historical cityscape and landscape is desired. Initial cost estimates amount to 40 million euros.
On May 21, 2019, the city of Koblenz submitted a building application to the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and the construction plans have been available for general information since August 5, 2019. The plan approval took place on March 4, 2020.
construction
The Pfaffendorfer Bridge is a 311.32 m long girder bridge over the Rhine with two external hollow girders . The abutments on both sides of the river rest on the historic parts of the previous bridge.
The bridge towers on both sides of the old bridge, broken down to street level and recognizable on today's bridge by rectangular bulges, as well as a covered round tower at the north junction and the casemated railway viaduct (today road access from the north) on the right bank of the Rhine have been preserved. On the left side of the Rhine, the land arch with the King's Hall and the southern end wall of the former Rhine connection barracks have remained visible. All components were built from light sandstone , with loopholes on the connecting walls and the windows and edges on the bridge towers being highlighted with darker stones. The arches of the viaduct were converted into storage rooms and therefore closed with door and window openings.
Foreland bridge to the Glockenberg tunnel
The round tower on the Pfaffendorfer side, top left the damage to the bridge at the north entrance
Former bridge tower on the Pfaffendorfer side
The Königshalle in the Rheinanlagen and the former bridge tower
Monument protection
The substructures of the Pfaffendorfer Bridge are protected cultural monuments according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . They are located on the left bank of the Rhine in Koblenz-Südliche Vorstadt in the monument zone Kaiserin-Augusta-Anlagen and on the right bank of the Rhine in Koblenz-Pfaffendorf .
The Pfaffendorfer Bridge has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 .
See also
- List of crossings over the Rhine and Moselle in Koblenz
- List of Rhine bridges
- Koblenz Central Station
literature
- Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH (ed.): History of the city of Koblenz. Overall editing: Ingrid Bátori in conjunction with Dieter Kerber and Hans Josef Schmidt. Theiss, Stuttgart 1992-1993;
- Volume 1: From the beginning to the end of the electoral era. 1992, ISBN 3-8062-0876-X ;
- Volume 2: From the French city to the present. 1993, ISBN 3-8062-1036-5 .
- Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and the suburbs , Munich Berlin 1954, (Die Kunstdenkmäler von Rheinland-Pfalz, first volume).
- City of Koblenz: Koblenz City of Bridges Documentation for the inauguration of the Koblenz Balduin Bridge, Koblenz, August 1975
- Atlas for the journal for construction . Vol. XIV, Berlin 1864, plates 47ff. Download from the Central and State Library Berlin
- Ulrike Weber (edit.): City of Koblenz. City districts (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Vol. 3, 3). Werner, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ State Library Center Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): ... always accessible to city residents and strangers to visit. Works of art and books from the possession of Empress Augusta, Koblenz 2016, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Uwe Kieling: Berlin building officials and state architects in the 19th century , Berlin 1986, p. 88
- ↑ Caspar Scheuren: The Rhine systems at Coblenz . Loeillot, Berlin 1866.
- ↑ Brückenstraße will be released again on Friday in: Rhein-Zeitung , 25 November 2009
- ↑ Ingo Schneider: Pfaffendorfer Bridge urgently needs to be renovated . In: Rhein-Zeitung , May 19, 2011
- ^ M / S VisuCom GmbH: City of Koblenz. Retrieved February 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Pfaffendorfer Bridge: New construction instead of renovation? in: Rhein-Zeitung , October 5, 2013
- ↑ Koblenz: Long traffic jams threaten at Pfaffendorfer Bridge in: Rhein-Zeitung , July 8, 2014
- ^ Koblenz: Bridge on the Neustadt must be supported in: Rhein-Zeitung , August 8, 2014
- ↑ Koblenz: Crossing over the Neustadt receives more support in: Rhein-Zeitung , March 12, 2015
- ↑ http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/region/lokales/koblenz_artikel,-pfaffendorfer-bruecke-neubau-wird-geplant-_arid,1527398.html
- ↑ https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/Koblenz-Stadt-beantracht-Neubau-der-Pfaffendorfer-Bruecke,koblenz-neubau-pfaffendorfer-bruecke-100.html
- ↑ Message in SWF 1
- ↑ https://pfv.lbm-rlp.org/fileadmin/LBM/Planfeststellung/Verfahren/B-Str/B49_Pfaffendorfer_Bruecke_Koblenz/Planfeststellungsbeschluss_B49_Pfaffendorfer_Bruecke_04.03.2020.pdf
- ↑ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.5 MB), Koblenz 2013
Rhine: south bridge | Horchheim Railway Bridge | Pfaffendorfer Bridge | Rhine ferry | Cable car | Bendorfer Bridge
Moselle: Moselle ferry Lay | Güls railway bridge | Kurt Schumacher Bridge | Barrage | Europe Bridge | Moselle Railway Bridge | Balduin Bridge | Moselle ferry at the Deutsches Eck
Former river crossings: Roman bridges | Flying bridge | Ship bridge | Stolzenfels – Oberlahnstein trajectory | Rhine ferry Stolzenfels – Lahnstein
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The next bridge up the river: Horchheimer Eisenbahnbrücke |
Bridges over the Rhine |
The next bridge downstream: Schiffbrücke (destroyed in 1945) Bendorfer Bridge |