Strelasund crossing

New and Old Bridge (2013)

The two bridges over the Strelasund (2011)

The term Strelasundquerung refers to the two bridge connections from the island of Rügen over the Strelasund to the West Pomeranian mainland near Stralsund , the Rügen bridge and the Rügen dam as well as the regularly operated ferry connections between Stralsund and Altefähr as well as Stahlbrode and Glewitz.

The "Rügen Dam" is the first fixed Strelasund crossing; The old federal highway 96 , the Stralsund – Sassnitz railway line and a combined pedestrian and cycle path run over it. It was completed in 1936/1937. "Rügenbrücke" is the name of the three-lane high bridge completed in 2007 exclusively for motor vehicle traffic between the town of Altefähr on Rügen and the Hanseatic and World Heritage City of Stralsund in the course of the federal highway 96 and Europastraße 22, which was developed as a bypass . Both bridges are operated in parallel.

Bridge structures over the Strelasund

Rügen Bridge

The Rügen Bridge, which is used exclusively for motor vehicle traffic, is a high bridge with a three-lane carriageway, the middle lane of which is used as required. The core of the 4100 m long crossing is the 2831 m long bridge over the Strelasund.

The route consists of a total of seven sections, five of which are bridge structures:

• Dam on the mainland side in Stralsund
• two approach bridges in Stralsund
• High bridge over the Ziegelgraben
• Foreland bridge Dänholm
• Strelasund approach bridge
• Strelasund Bridge
• Dam on the island of Ruegen

Driveway to the Rügen Bridge from Stralsund with the distinctive Y-pillar pairs

Southern bridge ramp

The southern bridge ramp begins behind the connection to the Stralsund bypass ( Bundesstrasse 96 ) and consists of an 85.53 m long dam structure up to the abutment of the first foreland bridge. This is followed by the two Stralsund approach bridges with a gradient of up to 4%. Structure 1.1 is a 327.5 m long bridge construction with ten fields and a two-web prestressed concrete T - beam as the superstructure. Structure 1.2 is a 317 m long bridge with six fields and a single-cell composite steel box as a superstructure, which was prefabricated in the Neumarkt-Sengenthal plant . The two pairs of Y-pillars at the entrance to the B 96 are an architectural specialty, which enable the large pillar spacing of 72 m with a constant superstructure height. The approach bridges have 0.7 m high inner paneling of the railings with laminated safety glass panes as wind deflectors and splash protection. The structures are founded on in-situ concrete driven piles .

View of the pylon stems

New Ziegelgraben Bridge (high bridge)

The new Ziegelgrabenbrücke (BW 2) , designed as a high bridge, spans the Ziegelgraben , which separates Stralsund and the island of Dänholm as a side train of the Strelasund . It has a length of 583.3 m. The two main fields with a length of 126 m (towards the mainland) and 198 m (towards Dänholm) are designed as a cable-stayed bridge and a three-cell steel box girder, which was prefabricated in the Neumarkt-Sengenthal factory. The bridge allows shipping traffic a clearance of 40 m.

The light blue, 128 m high pylon is divided into two parts, with an approximately 40 m high base made of reinforced concrete and a top made of steel . The superstructure is separated from the substructure by bridge bearings . The foundation of the main pillar consists of 40 bored piles with a diameter of 1.5 m. From the teardrop-shaped pylon, 32 harp-shaped, diagonally stretched steel cables carry the two main openings. The Rügen Bridge is provided with a process that is unique in Germany and which is protected against corrosion in three ways: The ropes are galvanized , with a polyethylene cover and additionally coated with special wax . The ropes were tested for a year at the Technical University of Munich and finally approved by the Federal Ministry of Construction. The steel cables with a total mass of up to 135 tons consist of 34 individual strands that are bundled in a duct to form a cable with a diameter of 180 mm. They are designed for an absorbable tensile force of 4000  kN .

The new Ziegelgraben Bridge has a 1.5 m high inner lining of the railing with laminated safety glass as a wind deflector.

Northern bridge ramp

Bridge over the Dänholm and Strelasund Bridge

The northern bridge ramp consists of three bridges, a dam and a route section. The main bridge is followed by the Dänholm approach bridge (BW 3) , a 532.3 m long structure and the Strelasund approach bridge (BW 4) with a length of 532.2 m. Both structures have a 10-field single-cell prestressed concrete box girder as a superstructure and are based on in-situ concrete bored piles. The Dänholm bridge is designed with a 0.7 m high inner lining of the railing with laminated safety glass as a wind deflector.

The bridge over the Strelasund is the 539.0 m long Strelasund Bridge (BW 5) , which reduces the height of the Ziegelgraben crossing to the north. The clearance height for shipping on the Strelasund is only 8 meters at the point intended for the passage. The bridge structure also has a single-cell prestressed concrete box girder as a superstructure.

The northernmost section of the Strelasund crossing is on a dam. The length of the dam is 455.95 m, followed by 732.0 m. The dam was filled with 225,000 m³ of earth, and 20,690 m² of sheet pile walls form the bank wall of the dam, which leads to the connection to the Altefähr traffic junction. There is a cycle path underpass in this area.

Rügenamm

Rügen dam is the name of the Strelasund crossing, which has existed since 1935, which was built with a road bridge for a two-lane roadway of the federal highway 96 and a sidewalk as well as in a parallel position for a single-track railway bridge along the route to Bergen – Sassnitz . It consists of three sections, which are described in the order in which they are passed from Stralsund, i.e. coming from the mainland.

Ziegelgraben Bridge in profile, before construction of the Rügen Bridge began

Road and railroad over the Ziegelgrabenbrücke (back), left the high bridge

Ziegelgraben Bridge

The old Ziegelgraben Bridge, designed as a bascule bridge , is 133 meters long and connects the mainland with the island of Dänholm, which still belongs to Stralsund . The railway and road bridges each consist of three superstructures: two fixed ones with a span of 52 meters each and a movable one with a span of 29 meters. The bridge, with a mass of 370 tons, is opened to shipping traffic daily at set times. The opening of the bridge enables shipping on the east approach to the port of Stralsund to pass the Rügen dam; it is opened daily at 2:30 a.m. (opening on demand), 5:20 a.m., 8:20 a.m., 12:20 p.m., 5:20 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. for 20 minutes each. These times are in scheduled train breaks, so that the bridge openings do not normally hinder railway operations. When closed, the passage height for shipping is 6 meters.

Rügenamm

The actual Rügen dam begins on Dänholm , i. H. the course of the Strelasund crossing as a dam . This is the connection between the Ziegelgraben Bridge and the Rügen Dam Bridge and extends beyond the actual Dänholm into the Strelasund.

Rügen Dam Bridge (Strelasund Bridge)

The Rügen dam bridge is a 10-span steel structure with a length of 540 m over the Strelasund. The structure, consisting of a superstructure each for the single-track railway line and road traffic, connects the island of Dänholm with the island of Rügen and ends at the town of Altefähr . The clearance for shipping on the Strelasund is 8 meters, 2 meters higher than that of the Ziegelgraben Bridge when closed.

Ferry connection

There is a ferry connection between Stralsund and Altefähr with smaller passenger ships that are used to transport people and bicycles. It is operated by the White Fleet .

history

The Strelasund has separated the island of Rügen from what is now the West Pomeranian mainland for thousands of years. For at least seven millennia, people have settled on the island, who also built their holy sites here, such as the Swantevit site at Cape Arkona . Christianization took place from the 12th century . The holy places fell into disrepair or were razed. These sites were previously the destination of many pilgrims from the mainland. They used boats to cross the strait, as well as for trade between the island and the mainland.

Old ferry

The strait could be crossed in many different places, as the island is in sight on a long stretch of the mainland coast. The shortest distance, however, was the crossing between today's city of Stralsund and the village of Altefähr. In addition, it was very conveniently located due to the protective island of Stralow (later called Dänholm). From here a regular ferry service developed; Herring was already being traded here around 1000 or 1100 ; Arab coins were even found during excavations on the island of Rügen.

The two ferry docks developed into larger settlements after Christianization by the Danes. Above all, the ferry village Stralow ("stral" means "arrow" in Middle Low German and Slavonic) developed rapidly. At the beginning of the 13th century, more and more settlers u. a. from Westphalia . Their settlement was promoted by the Rügen princes and in 1234 Prince Wizlaw I granted Stralow city rights. The ferry connection to Alte Fähre, as the place on Rügen was called, became more and more important, more and more goods and goods were traded by sea. Stralsund became a member of the Hanseatic League in 1293 , and the movement of goods between the island of Rügen and the mainland increased in importance and scope.

Dänholm ferry

There was a ferry connection between Dänholm and the mainland side of Stralsund, which was mainly used by the military. It was closed to road traffic in mid-July 1935 after the Ziegelgraben Bridge was completed.

The Swedish postal line

After the Thirty Years War , Western Pomerania and with it Stralsund and the island of Rügen became part of the Kingdom of Sweden . The Swedes operated a mail service between the mother country and the provinces by sailing ship line. Stralsund also became part of such a line that began in Ystad . From 1664 the small warship Lilla Jägaren operated on this line . After a three-year break due to the Danish occupation of Stralsund, mail was resumed in 1678; from July 20, 1683 there was even a timetable. From 1684 passengers and horse-drawn carriages were also carried. The journey time on the Posthornet and Postryttaren ferries was between nine hours and three days, and sometimes the ships were on the move for a week. Because of the shallow fairway in front of Stralsund and because of the ice drift in winter, the Swedish Post increasingly used the Wittow ferry station as the end point from 1685. From here a feeder continued to Stralsund. The Delphin package boat, which was specially built in Stralsund , regularly carried mail and passengers to Wittow on Mondays at 8 a.m., where they were reloaded onto the mail ship. The mail boat then went on to Ystad; after his return on Thursday, the package was reloaded again, which then regularly drove from Wittow to Stralsund on Fridays. Since the crossing with the small package boat was not particularly pleasant, and on the other hand it could not accommodate larger vehicles, there was also a land connection between Wittow and Altefähr, from where the passengers and freight were transferred with the existing ferries.

The post line was always subject to the weather conditions; It often came to a complete standstill in war situations such as during the Northern War or the Napoleonic Wars. The post ships lying in the Stralsund harbor when the French withdrew were sold by the occupiers to the Stralsund people and later formed the beginnings of the Prussian Navy.

After Stralsund moved to Prussia , Sweden gave up its post lines to Rostock and Lübeck in an intergovernmental contract concluded on March 25, 1818 in favor of the continued existence of its post office in Stralsund and the Ystad - Stralsund post line. The Swedish ships Constitution and Troheten and the Prussian ships Kronprinz von Preußen and Friedrich Wilhelm were now operating on the line . In addition to the mail sailors, numerous fishermen also carried passengers and cargo with their boats between the Pomeranian mainland, Rügen and Sweden. From 1821, Prussia and Sweden also used paddle steamers on the route in the summer months , although they were replaced by sailing ships in winter due to the ice drift.

By 1827 the fairway in front of Stralsund was so silted up that the mail ships ran to Wieck near Greifswald until 1841 . That year, the fairway had been dredged to a height of 3.45 meters (eleven feet). Prussia extended the line to Copenhagen, Sweden followed suit in 1843. However, traffic on the line declined when Stettin received a railway line to Berlin in 1843 . Stralsund's considerations about a railway line from Berlin to Stralsund and further over a railway bridge to Arkona were rejected, but on June 21, 1861 the construction of a branch line via Pasewalk , Anklam and Greifswald was approved. The Stralsund station was on 27 September 1863 with the arrival of the train from Angermünde inaugurated. The bold plans for a railway bridge were initially not realized.

In 1946, due to the destruction of the bridges over the Strelasund, the ferry was once again frequented. In August alone, 50,000 people were promoted. During further renovation measures in April and May 1961, passenger and car ferries were used to transport passengers and cargo across the sound. During further renovation measures on the bridge in March 1990, the ferry was again increasingly used by pedestrians and cyclists.

Trajectory

Model of Trajekts Stralsund in the Marine Museum Stralsund

From 1878 Stralsund had a direct rail connection to Berlin. In 1882 tracks were built on the route from Altefähr to Bergen as well as trajectories in Altefähr and Stralsund. The planners of the route assumed 30,000 to 40,000 passengers per year. On July 1, 1883, the trajectory (with two 30 meter long ships, the Prince Heinrich and the Rügen ) and the railway line to Bergen began operations. All ferries had ice breaker properties for winter operation. The operators of the previous ferries had filed a lawsuit against the company because their livelihoods were threatened. They were awarded compensation of 80,000  gold marks ; from this money u. a. bought a new paddle steamer that was still in operation until 1949.

In the first year, 90,000 passengers traveled on the trajectory, after which the Stralsund was put into service as the third ship in 1890 . Express trains have been running on Rügen since 1897. New ferries such as the Saßnitz could accommodate three express train carriages with a length of 62 meters. It was followed in 1898 by the identical Putbus . In Altefähr and Stralsund, two ferry beds had been in operation since 1897, so that the trains could be handled in parallel. After the extension line between Bergen and Saßnitz went into operation and the ferry service of the Seepostlinie from there to Sweden started on May 1, 1897, two pairs of express trains ran daily between Berlin and Saßnitz.

A big disadvantage of the twice broken traffic was the loss of time. The Warnemünde - Gedser railway ferry line, inaugurated on October 1, 1904 , increasingly became a competitor. In 1909, Sweden and Germany therefore also opened a rail ferry connection between Saßnitz and Trelleborg , which made it possible to travel without having to change trains. Again demands were made for a permanent connection between Rügen and the mainland. In 1910, however, the Prussian Landtag rejected such a connection, as did the city council in Stralsund. On May 4, 1911, the Ministry of Public Works handed over a memorandum entitled "The development of traffic and operation of the railroad on the island of Rügen and the connection with Stralsund" and recommended a railway bridge. The construction project from 1914 envisaged a 1200 meter long steel high bridge between Dänholm and Rügen, which should rest on ten pillars. The span between the pillars would have been 102 meters, the centrally located main navigable opening should have a span of 160 meters and a passage height above sea of ​​27 meters. These first drafts had also been criticized by proponents of the emerging motor transport. A pure railway bridge seemed anachronistic to them. However, the project was shelved at the outbreak of the First World War .

After the First World War, a new, 83 meter long ferry named Altefähr was put into service in 1920 . Another was extended. Despite the conversion of operations to electrical systems, the ferries were already overloaded because of the longer trains - one train had to be divided between at least two ships.

Rügenamm

Strelasund Bridge (2007)

Strelasund Bridge (2005)

Strelasund Bridge, concrete pillar (2007)

Strelasund Bridge, steel pendulum support (2007)

Strelasund Bridge, abutment on the Rügen side

Ziegelgrabenbrücke, open

Sign at the Ziegelgraben Bridge

The Swedish Crown Prince General Bernadotte saw a fixed Strelasund crossing as a possible route for his troops to retreat from before the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 . 1879 won Robert Bassel with his design for a "bridge across the bay from Stralsund to Rügen" the Schinkel price - as with most tasks in this annual competition, however, there was no concrete building plans.

After plans from 1914 had been discarded, the Deutsche Reichsbahn was also very interested in establishing a permanent connection after the First World War . In 1929 185,000 travelers used the train, which drove back and forth up to 90 times a day. On February 5, 1930, an association was founded in Stralsund to promote the project. In that year, preparations were made for the start of the construction of a "Rügen dam". Financing caused difficulties. A large part of the earthworks should therefore be done by the "voluntary labor service" or later the Reich labor service . Ideas for levying a user fee known as a “ bridge fee” were also put forward. In view of the expected increase in the number of tourists, the project was accelerated. The overall management for the construction of the Rügen dam, including the construction of the roads, was entrusted to the Stettin Reich Railway Directorate .

In Stralsund, a new railway line had to be built which no longer touched the main train station, the so-called "Berlin curve". In the immediate vicinity of the future dam structure, the Stralsund Rügen dam was built. On the mainland side, a feeder road was laid through the Frankenvorstadt, over a dam through the Frankenteich and further towards Tribseer Vorstadt. The Altefähr station was relocated on Rügen and built four meters higher.

Project

In contrast to the previous projects, the bridge project envisaged the relocation of shipping traffic in the Ziegelgraben between Dänholm and the Stralsund mainland. A bascule bridge over the Ziegelgraben, a permanent bridge between Dänholm and Rügen with ten flood openings for the unhindered flow of the water of the Strelasund and heaped dams on the Dänholm and in front of Rügen were now planned. The original plan to build a lift bridge was abandoned due to the planned passage width of 25 meters for cost reasons. The railway line on the Rügen dam was designed as a single track and the road with a width of 6 meters was designed with two lanes. A two and a half meter wide sidewalk completed the project. Three overpasses (Paschenbergbrücke, Köppenbergbrücke, Greifswalder overpass), three underpasses (An der Werft, Schwarze Kuppe and Bauhofstraße), a pedestrian underpass and a tunnel at Rügenamm station were required. The east pier had to be extended; it was supposed to protect the passing ships from northwest winds.

Earthworks

The foundation stone was laid on August 1, 1931. In 1932, the earthworks for the route between the Stralsund train station and the Ziegelgraben began. Since the loans initially guaranteed by Sweden were not paid out for political reasons, work came to a standstill. The German National Socialists, however, urgently needed such prestige projects, especially in a region affected by high unemployment , and gave priority to supporting the construction. Work therefore continued in September 1933. The earthworks were initially carried out by hand - a measure mainly aimed at creating work for the unemployed. When the work became more and more difficult due to the nature of the soil, from autumn 1934 the company switched completely to an excavator operation . The earth was Loren removed and used to fill the dam. The southern facilities at the station were expanded and an entrance for freight trains from the south was created.

In November 1933, work began on the dredging of the fairway in the Ziegelgraben; the soil dredged up in the process, which was not suitable for backfilling the dams, was partly deposited on the Stralsund side, but the majority was moved to the new flushing fields in Drigge . 1,000,000 m³ of silt and sand were dredged from the future shipping channel alone. In the Ziegelgraben and in the Strelasund between Dänholm and Rügen, the silt was dredged over a width of 50 meters, and a flood channel 11.4 meters deep and 25 meters wide was created under the future bridge over the sound. This produced a further 700,000 m³ of silt. The foot of the dam was created with sand and gravel found in front of Drigge. Sand was brought to the place to be filled with barges ; the height of the dam foot should be 2.5 meters above the sea floor. When the barges could no longer be used because of their draft , the rest of the dam foot was washed up; A total of 1,000,000 m³ of sand and gravel were used for this. Sheet piling was driven into the ground from the flooded dam. The ramming near the abutments of the bridge was carried out from the ship. The dam in the Ziegelgraben and between the Dänholm and the abutment of the bridge was filled with the soil obtained from the railway work.

Bridge building

The company J. Gollnow & Sohn ( Stettin ) for the road bridge, Friedrich Krupp AG (bridge construction department in Rheinhausen ) for the Ziegelgraben railway bridge and the railway bridge over the Strelasund from pillar 5 to the abutment on the Stralsund side were responsible for the work on the steel structures and the Doernen company (Dortmund- Derne ) for the railway bridge over the Strelasund from pillar 5 to the abutment on the Rügen side.

Ziegelgraben Bridge

Construction of the Ziegelgraben Bridge began in March 1934. The abutment on the mainland side and the pillars of the Ziegelgraben Bridge were built on a 28 meter deep pile foundation . The span of the two-part weighing beam bascule bridge was 29 meters. The parts of the railway bridge were welded, the main girders were delivered on specially made railway wagons and floated in using a crane ship. The supports of the pylons were brought to the building by the crane ship and set with slewing cranes. The 325-tonne superstructures of the parts of the road bridge that were transported by ship from Stettin were completely riveted. In order not to obstruct the view of the silhouette of the city, the road was raised a little higher. The two folding bridges were equipped with three-phase motors. They could either be lifted together (in normal operation both motors and the two parts of the bridge, which are mechanically decoupled, open or close simultaneously after two minutes; in single-motor operation, both parts of the bridge are mechanically coupled and opened or closed with just one motor in four minutes . closed) or individually. Trial operation of the bascule bridges began in March 1935.

In mid-July 1935, the road bridge was opened to traffic on the island of Dänholm, construction trains were able to use the railway bridge from December 3, 1935.

Rügen dam bridge over the Strelasund

The Rügen dam bridge was built on two abutments and nine pillars. The abutment on the Dänholm side is a flat foundation. For the foundation of pillars 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 (counting starts on the Dänholm side), which are mostly vertical loads, specially constructed reinforced concrete caissons were lowered, blown out with compressed air and poured into concrete in stages. It took an average of three to four weeks to completely lower a box. Pillars 3 and 7 also take horizontal loads in addition to the vertical ones and are therefore much larger: Pillar 3 has a base area of ​​264 m² and Pillar 7 has 400 m². Reinforced concrete caissons were also used for their foundation. Pillars 8 and 9 were founded on piling. The sheet pile boxes used here were 12 meters high and exposed to extreme water loads, especially in rough seas . They were concreted in several steps. As with the Ziegelgraben Bridge, the railway bridge of the Strelasund Bridge is welded and the road bridge is riveted. The superstructures have their fixed bearings on pillars 3 and 7 and are only supported on the other pillars. The road bridge superstructures were installed on two temporary bridges on Dänholm and then floated in. The Friedrich Krupp company installed its part of the railway bridge in the same way as it did for the Ziegelgraben Bridge. The Doernen company installed the second half of the railway bridge using the sliding method.

opening

On October 5, 1936, in the presence of the Reichsbahn general director Julius Dorpmüller, the railway operations over the newly created Strelasund crossing were opened with an elaborate staging. In the Stralsund town hall , the actually enormous technical achievements were first recognized. From the train station, dignitaries and representatives of the press took a special train to the Stralsund port station, from where the journey with the “Altefähr” train led along the new structure. The four other trajectories passed the “Altefähr”, which then brought the guests back to the port station. The special train drove via the main station and the Rügen dam station at 13:52 on the new bridge and then into the Altefähr station. A gigantic marquee had been set up there near the dam, the oversized flags of the Nazi regime waved over the celebrants, speeches were made and the first two express trains to and from Sweden drove past. The fact that the Reichsbahn did not celebrate its inauguration at the same time as the road connection had caused displeasure among the responsible ministries.

On May 13, 1937, the road link was opened in the presence of Gauleiter Franz Schwede . From the celebrations in Stralsund's town hall, the guests, among whom were workers, drove with buses over the Rügen dam and back, then the party was celebrated in the “House of German Labor” on Hindenburgufer in Stralsund; At night there was another rally held in the National Socialist style and fireworks on the Old Market .

Damage in World War II

With the beginning of the Second World War , the tourists expected by the construction of the KdF-Bad Prora suddenly stopped. The Rügen dam had fewer passers-by. As in the First World War , the Strelasund crossing was also used for the transport of wounded prisoners of war exchanged between the warring parties. The last prisoners of war arrived in Saßnitz on September 10, 1944 and were transported on via Stralsund. On September 26, 1944, the Saßnitz – Trelleborg ferry service was discontinued. With the losses on the Eastern Front, the risk of an attack on the Rügen dam increased. During the bombing raid on Stralsund on October 6, 1944 , the Ziegelgraben Bridge was hit by a bomb; Because of this and two other hits on the access roads within Stralsund, traffic could only flow in one lane. Driving over the railway bridge could not be resumed until October 15, 1944. The folding mechanism was examined and found to be functional during a manual test on October 17, 1944. From October 19, 1944, the bridge was again opened once a day to shipping.

On April 30, 1945, the Red Army reached Stralsund, the Wehrmacht withdrew to Rostock and the island of Rügen. During the retreat, the German troops blew up the brickworks of the Ziegelgraben Bridge to the mainland on the night of May 1, 1945 - on that day Stralsund surrendered almost without a fight. the road and railway bridges fell into the water of the Ziegelgraben. The folding mechanism was also badly damaged, one counterweight was destroyed, the second hung on the bent girders only 25 meters above the roadway. On May 3, 1945, around 10 a.m., while retreating without a fight, the German soldiers persisting on Dänholm blew up the first superstructure of the Strelasund Bridge towards Dänholm. The blasting made both bridges impassable.

Restoration

The Ziegelgraben Bridge in the post-war period

The Soviet occupying power was very interested in a quick reconstruction of the bridge. At times it forced over a thousand workers to rebuild and supported him by providing vehicles and releasing required, insufficient materials. A pontoon bridge was temporarily built by the Soviet Army over the Ziegelgraben . The city of Stralsund was commissioned to rebuild the road bridges. In the summer of 1945 work began on clearing the rubble. A wooden construction was planned as a replacement bridge over the brick trench, the pillars of which were built into four barges. The water level movements were balanced out via the barges' immersion tanks. The auxiliary bridge was opened to road traffic on March 31, 1946. Then the Strelasund Bridge was devoted to. Road traffic could be directed over the railway section by means of a ramp until 1946. At the same time, the rubble was recovered from the sound and three bridge bays were rammed, on which a wooden replacement bridge could resume road traffic from the summer of 1946.

The rail travelers arriving in Stralsund had to change to carts and trucks to get over the bridge to the island of Rügen. Passers-by at the Rügen dam had to pay a bridge fee, the Red Army required a pass to be obtained in Stralsund.

In March 1947 the occupying forces ordered the bridges to be repaired. The railway bridges should be made ready for operation by steel structures. For this purpose, decommissioned war bridges in half-timbered construction under the direction of a Soviet construction staff were used in place of the destroyed superstructures. The endurance tests on October 10 and 11, 1947 with heavy locomotives were successful, and on October 12, 1947 the first train after the Second World War drove over the bridges again. The wooden auxiliary bridge over the Ziegelgraben was also replaced by a steel construction from October 26, 1947 in a one-week campaign. On November 5, 1947, the new bridge was opened to road traffic. At the beginning of 1948 work began on the folding mechanism of the Ziegelgraben Bridge while traffic was still running; on April 12, 1948, the Soviet military engineers handed over the first superstructure and the folding part. In November 1948, the auxiliary structure of the road bridge in the Strelasund Bridge was exchanged for a war bridge. For the passage of the bridges the maximum speed in the area of ​​the war bridges was 30 km / h for the road and 10 km / h for the railroad. On February 11, 1949, the completion of the building was celebrated with a party for 70 people in the Rügen dam station.

Renewal measures and planning

In April and May 1961 the company Stahlbau Dessau (railway bridges) and Beuchelt & Co. , Könnern (road bridges) replaced the war bridges. The traffic on the bridges came to a standstill; The cargo and people were transferred by ferries. From April 20 to 23, 1961, 52.6 meter long superstructure bridge parts of the Ziegelgraben Bridge were replaced, the road bridge part weighed 320 tons and the railway bridge part 250 tons, whereby the floating of the old and the floating of the new parts took only one hour. From 24 to 27 May 1961, the superstructures of the Strelasund Bridge were replaced. The new section of the railway bridge was 43 meters long and weighed 180 tons, the section of the road bridge with a length of 47 meters weighed 240 tons. The old superstructures were dismantled and transported to steel works in the GDR with 120  freight cars .

The road surface on the bascule bridge was renewed in 1971. In the GDR , the railway lines to the north were electrified in the 1980s, and the line to Saßnitz was also given overhead lines . The Ziegelgraben Bridge was given a stiff conductor rail, which allowed the bridge to be opened safely and ships to pass.

In the 1980s, the heavily used steel superstructures began to show increasing signs of fatigue - in 1989 five million tons of goods were transported over the bridge by rail. From 1986 trains were only allowed to use the Ziegelgraben Bridge at 30 km / h. Starting in 1987, the Reichsbahn prepared to replace the superstructures of the Strelasund Bridge. The company Stahlbau Dessau was commissioned with the work. In Mukran it produced four bridge parts, each 135 meters long and weighing 583 tons, which were transported to Stralsund by sea ​​with NVA pontoons . On May 9, 1990, the last train passed the Rügen dam, after which rail traffic was interrupted. With the help of floating cranes , the old superstructures were lifted from the bearings and girders and floated out and the new ones floated in and placed on the bearings. On May 13, 1990 the first regular train drove over the now renewed railway bridge over the Strelasund; this bridge was allowed to be passed by the trains at 90 km / h. However, the speed limit of 30 km / h for the Ziegelgraben Bridge still existed. On May 9, 1992, renovation work began here. The aim was to replace the electromechanically driven movable superstructure with a 29 meter long, fully hydraulically driven balance beam bascule bridge. The pylon shaft, the pylon base, the movable and the fixed superstructures 1 and 3 were also to be replaced by the company Stahlbau Dessau . The work began on site with the lifting of the 140-tonne balance beam and ended 70 hours later, on May 15, 1992, when the floating crane "Magnus I" placed the new balance beam. After further work, the first train was allowed to pass the Ziegelgraben Bridge on June 3, 1992 at a speed of 90 km / h.

But the road section of the bridges was no longer able to cope with the loads. Motor vehicle traffic has increased steadily since the GDR joined the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990. On the road section of the bascule bridge, the engine , the emergency drive and parts of the gearbox were changed in 1993 and 1994 . A general overhaul began on August 10, 1998. New superstructures were delivered from Sande and Magdeburg . The movable superstructure and the balance beam arrived by ship from Papenburg on March 2, 1999. The floating cranes "Enak" and "Thor" were chartered for the work. Between March 4 and 8, 1999, superstructures and balance beams were replaced in the evening and at night: first superstructure 1, then the balance beam, the counterweight and the hatch. The latter caused some problems, so that the old main pivot bearing had to be separated with welding equipment . On superstructure 3, the old roadway first had to be removed; Without this weight reduction, the maximum load of the floating crane would have been exceeded by 38 tons. On March 9, 1999, the first regular pull of the new road bridge took place.

Renewal of the railway bascule bridge in October 2007

In 2005, cracks were found on the vertical and horizontal sheets of the balance beam lantern on the railway section. The bridge opening times were then reduced. Preparatory work for an exchange began in October 2006. On October 7, 2007, the floating crane “Taklift” lifted the 240-tonne balance beam of the railway bridge and loaded it onto a push boat unit, on which the beam was removed for scrapping. It was replaced by a 275-ton balance beam manufactured in the DB production plant in Dresden. The new construction of the railway bridge over the Ziegelgraben cost around 6½ million euros. During the exchange, rail traffic to and from Rügen was interrupted from the beginning of October to October 31, 2007.

Investigations and planning for a renewal of the road connection between Stralsund and Altefähr also began in October 2007. The renewal of the corrosion protection or the replacement of the bridge girders and the renewal of road slabs were planned. Construction was initially planned to start in 2009. Construction work to renew the roadway finally began in May 2010. The entire road connection over the Rügen dam was closed to road traffic during the construction work, only trains, cyclists and pedestrians could still pass. During the renovation, rusted steel structures were replaced with new girders, the dam was secured and the old roadway was expanded and replaced with steel plates, with the steel used in the construction being connected to the new steel plates with fitting screws. Thanks to new steel alloys, construction and assembly processes, the weight of the Rügen dam was reduced by around a third. In the future, trains will again be able to travel on the bridge at 50 km / h. In December 2011, the Rügen dam was opened to traffic again after a construction period of almost 19 months. The construction costs of 12.6 million euros were borne by the federal government and the EU.

First plans for a new dam

The capacity of the railway bridge was limited:

In 1952, two additional bridges were planned for the planned military port on Rügen . The planning for this port project was discontinued in 1953.

After the expansion of the port of Mukran , far more traffic could have been handled by rail, but such projects failed because of the "bottleneck" Rügen dam. In the mid-1980s, construction preparations for a second Rügen dam therefore began. The Deutsche Reichsbahn prepared the general repair of the railway bridge of the Strelasund Bridge from 1990. The bascule bridge was to be replaced from 1991 to 1995 by a four-lane, likewise folding, new building north of the existing Ziegelgrabenbrücke, the track over the Ziegelgrabenbrücke was only to be used for traffic from Stralsund to Saßnitz, the road bridge was to be converted to a track for the opposite direction. After 1995, a new, double-track Strelasund bridge was to be built 17 meters next to the existing one. However, the plans were never implemented, also because technical checks on the pillars of the Strelasund Bridge had shown that no comprehensive repair measures were necessary.

Rügen Bridge ("Second Strelasund Crossing")

On August 31, 2004, the construction of the second Strelasund crossing, one of the longest bridge structures in Germany, began with the first in-situ concrete pile foundation . In a name search organized by the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Ostsee-Zeitung , the name Rügenbrücke prevailed. Economics Minister Otto Ebnet proposed this to the Federal Ministry of Transport as the official name. This bridge was completed in October 2007.

The Rügen Bridge

architecture

The design comes from the engineering company Schüßler-Plan in collaboration with the Rostock architect André Keipke . He said that his idea was " to take on the shape of the sailing yachts for a maritime city ​​like Stralsund ." For aesthetic reasons, a more expensive cable-stayed bridge was given preference over other variants ( beam bridge , arch bridge ). The church towers of the neighboring historic Stralsund old town ( UNESCO World Heritage ) are towered over by the pylons of the bridge. The architect of the building said in an interview against the background of the dispute over the Dresden Waldschlößchenbrücke : “In fact, there was almost the same problem. From the beginning, however, Stralsund worked together with UNESCO, so that this committee was not put in front of a finished draft, but was always involved in the process of becoming. "

Construction company

The largest bridge construction project in his time in Germany was from the German Unity Fernstrassenplanungs- and construction GmbH in implementation of German Unity transport projects planned and supervised the construction. There were seven providers in the tender process. The contract for the project, which was planned with a construction cost of 85 million euros, was awarded to the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Strelasundquerung", consisting of the construction company Walter Bau-AG combined with DYWIDAG with the technical lead and Max Bögl Bauunternehmung GmbH with the commercial lead. After the insolvency of the Walter Bau AG in 2005, the project was supported by the Max Bögl GmbH completed. The foundation work was carried out by the working group "Foundation Strelasundquerung", consisting of the companies Walter Bau AG united with Dywidag (later / after the above mentioned insolvency by Dywidag Bau GmbH ), Bohlen & Doyen Bauservice GmbH and Colcrete von Essen GmbH & Co. KG .

Preliminary work

As early as autumn 1998, the first boreholes to examine the load-bearing capacity of the building site in the area of ​​the brick trench were made from a pontoon that was brought into position by a port tug . In December 1998 the pontoon was towed to the northeast of the Dänholm. When the pontoon got stuck in the drift ice while being moved and further drift ice was expected, the drill rods were transferred to an ice-capable special ship with its own drive. In July 2004, concrete piles equipped with measuring instruments were driven into the ground to test the future bridge foundations.

Construction work

and display information about the image

Panorama of the bridge construction over the Ziegelgraben

Flooding near Altefähr (October 2005)

"Taklift 7" in the harbor (October 2005)

Formwork construction (October 2005)

Model of the steel cables

Asphalt work (October 2007)

On August 31, 2004, Federal Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Harald Ringstorff gave the starting signal for construction to begin. A double-walled steel pipe with a diameter of 1.5 meters was driven 24 meters deep into the earth with a 470 HP 120-ton ram. This first foundation served as a test load.

In September 2004, the pile piling work began on the Rügen dam structure. These consist of planks up to 23 meters long and weighing 12 tons, which were driven into the ground using hydraulic vibrators. The sheet pile walls were used to create artificial islands that protrude from Altefähr up to 500 meters into the Strelasund and extend to the old Rügen dam and at the head of which the actual bridge begins. The soft, unsound seabed (the Mudde ) was pumped out of the resulting boxes . 70,000 m³ of this mass were temporarily stored on Rügen and later used as filler for bridge construction, cover material for landfills or as fertilizer for agriculture . The foundations were prepared in this way for all pillars of the structure. In January 2005, the first pile foundations for the pillars were made in the sheet pile boxes that were built near Stralsund. To carry out the pile foundation, the Strelasundquerung Foundation Working Group, consisting of the companies Colcrete - von Essen , DYWIDAG and Bohlen & Doyen, developed and built a special drilling catamaran. After the pile foundation, 1.5 meters of underwater concrete was installed. The foundation was completed by another three meter thick concrete layer.

In February 2005, a total of 45 piles, each 30 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter, were driven into the ground as the basis for the 126 meter high pylon. They were each filled with 60 m³ of concrete. The artificial island in front of Altefähr was filled with 180,000 m³ of sand from the end of May to November 2005, which comes from the deepening of the fairway of the Stralsund north approach to 4.5 meters. After steel parts for the later bridge had been prefabricated on the open space of the Mahnkesche Wiesen near the construction site since April , the first of these bridge segments was assembled on June 6, 2005 with truck-mounted cranes. These steel segments over the foreland were later supplemented with a concrete deck. In contrast to this, the bridge section with the prestressed T-beam was executed with a falsework in structure 1.1 . End of October hit Europe's highest, 3,300  tons of heavy floating crane Taklift 7 from Rotterdam into Stralsund. For this floating crane, which can lift loads of up to 1200 tonnes, the northern approach to Stralsund in Strelasund had been dredged deeper since 2003.

A steel auxiliary structure with a dead weight of 78 tons was attached to the last 40 meter high girder on the mainland and the first 490 tons heavy steel segment of the bridge was placed over the Ziegelgraben with the help of the floating crane on November 1st, 2005. This part of the construction is held in place by the stay cables of the pylon. On November 4, 2005, the last part of the bridge, a 388-tonne, 60-meter-long section, was placed on the mainland side using a truck-mounted crane. On November 28, 2005, the 820 tonnes heaviest sub-segment of the 126 meter long field was placed on the base of the pylon with the aid of the floating crane and an auxiliary structure in the form of a strand jack. It took ten days to weld this piece to the segment resting on the last mainland pillar. The main span with a span of 198 meters is built using cantilever construction.

Structures 3–5 were constructed field by field with prestressed concrete by means of a feed scaffolding with attached formwork . Mixed prestressing with internal and external tendons was used. On December 7, 2005, the floating crane lifted the 400-ton pylon base onto the concrete pillar in the Ziegelgraben. The first tension ropes were pulled in early January 2006. On February 24, 2006 the pylon was already 100 meters high; on March 5, 2006, the last part of the pylon reached a height of 127.75 meters. The pylon was erected with an incline of one degree to the west; this is compensated for after tensioning the last rope. The last steel segment was lifted in by the floating crane on April 6, 2006 near the Dänholm, where the concrete structure had already moved up to ten meters. After completion of the connection from the concrete structure to the steel bridge, the formwork scaffolding was moved to the other end of the finished structure on Dänholm in the direction of Rügen, from where the drive in the direction of Altefähr takes place. The wind deflectors have meanwhile been installed on the bridge sections.

The asphalting work began on June 21, 2007 , during which a satellite-controlled road roller was also used. On July 23, 2007, the feed frame reached the first warehouse on the island of Rügen. The wind-repellent fences were installed and supply lines were laid.

The bridge was opened for use in October 2007. After the electronic traffic monitoring systems were first tested, only two of the three lane lanes were released for use. The third lane was used for the first time at Easter 2008.

The pyloneum

Pyloneum

In Stralsund, the Pyloneum , an information center on Dänholmstrasse, near the construction site, provided information about the project from November 10, 2005 . Guided tours of the bridge construction site were also offered on Saturdays. By July 2007, over 50,000 visitors were counted. After the bridge was opened, the pyloneum was abandoned; the building is currently (2013) empty.

Environmental pollution and measures for environmental and animal welfare

As part of the planning, the nationwide most extensive study of bird migration was carried out; DEGES spent 500,000 euros on studies of the impairment of bird migration and schools of fish. According to these investigations, the risk of collision is low. The suspension ropes were also designed in a form that was particularly easy for the birds to perceive. Overflight aids on the bridge structures are intended to prevent people from flying into the traffic area. The bridge is not illuminated. During the herring migration in spring, piling work was suspended.

According to Deges, a total of 8.5 hectares of soil was sealed and more than six hectares of coastal biotopes on Dänholm and the island of Rügen were destroyed. In addition, 2.8 hectares of bat hunting grounds were lost.

As a replacement measure for the construction of the second Strelasund crossing, a renaturation measure is being carried out in the Mellnitz-Üselitzer Wiek .

criticism

Already during the planning phase, environmental associations in particular had expressed criticism of the expensive project. Impairments to birds and fish were feared. At the start of construction on August 31, 2004, there was a banner directly opposite the official marquee with the inscription "Teure Brücke - Riesenstrasse - megalomania - with empty cash register". In the opinion of numerous critics, the planning misses the needs of the region, and a tourist rush to the island of Rügen is feared. At peak times, up to 20,000 vehicles were counted daily on the old bridge, while experts reckon with 30,000 vehicles per day on the new one. However, it is doubtful that the island's road network can cope with the 50 percent increase.

Hopes

Proponents of the project stated that the bridge would contribute to the economic upturn, especially in Western Pomerania and on Rügen . In addition to the expected growth in tourism, potential investors could plan better. The Sassnitz ferry port would benefit greatly from the bridge. During the construction, up to 30 million euros should flow into the region to participating companies, construction workers from the region were involved in the construction. An initiative “Pro A 20” campaigned for the Strelasund Bridge, among other things, by collecting signatures.

opening

The bridge was opened on the weekend of October 19-21, 2007. A folk festival as well as the Rügen Bridge Run over a distance of six and ten kilometers and the crossing of the bridge by the participants of the Tour d'Allee formed the supporting program. During these days numerous events were held in Altefähr and Stralsund. On October 19, around 40,000 guests celebrated the inauguration of the Rügen Bridge, the festival was opened by Stralsund's Lord Mayor Harald Lastovka and the Rügen District Administrator. After the official opening on October 20 by German Chancellor Angela Merkel , whose constituency is on Rügen, Stralsund and Northern Pomerania, the bridge was crossed by around 330,000 visitors on both days. On the afternoon of October 22, 2007, the bridge was opened to motor vehicle traffic.

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  Fireworks with laser show on October 20, 2007

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  Rügen Bridge with festive lighting on October 20, 2007

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  Bridge run on October 21, 2007

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  Clearance for pedestrians on the 2nd opening day

costs

The new, four-kilometer Strelasund connection cost a total of around 125 million euros, the bridge train alone around 100 million euros, 85 million were once planned. Initially, private financing of the project with tolls was planned, but this failed. The bridge was finally financed entirely from public funds and can now be used toll-free.

Technical specifications

Surname	Building	construction	length	Spans	Construction height	Bridge area
Stralsund approach bridges	BW 1.1	2-web prestressed concrete slab beam	327.5 m	29.0 + 30.5 + 7 × 33.5 + 32.5 m	1.8 m	4912 m²
	BW 1.2	Composite steel box	317.0 m	48.0 + 49.0 + 72.0 + 2 × 49.0 + 48.0 m	2.5 m	4755 m²
Ziegelgraben Bridge	BW 2	Cable-stayed bridge	583.3 m	54.0 + 72.0 + 126.0 + 198.0 + 72.0 + 59.3 m	3.15 m	8720 m²
Foreland bridge Dänholm	BW 3	Prestressed concrete box girder	532.3 m	52.32 + 8 × 53.22 + 52.22 m	2.12 m	7985 m²
Strelasund approach bridge	BW 4	Prestressed concrete box girder	532.2 m	52.22 + 8 × 53.22 + 52.22 m	2.12 m	7983 m²
Strelasund Bridge	BW 5	Prestressed concrete box girder	539.0 m	53.0 + 8 × 54.0 + 53.0 m	2.12 m	8085 m²

A total of around 71,200 cubic meters of concrete, 7,600 tons of reinforcing steel, 7,400 tons of structural steel and 7,100 tons of sheet pile steel were used.

Rügen Bridge Run

Every year in October, the Rügen Bridge Run with marathon has been held since 2007 , which leads the participants across the bridge.

literature

• Lohse: The Rügen dam . In: Newspaper of the Association of German Railway Administrations . tape 71 , no. 47 , November 19, 1931, p. 1245-1250 .
• Horst Auerbach (Red.): From the mail sailors to Sweden to the high bridge over the Strelasund . Ed .: Förderverein des Marinemuseums Dänholm eV (=  publication series of the Marinemuseums Dänholm . Issue 9). Stralsund 2004.
• Herbert Ewe: History of the Hanseatic City of Stralsund . H. Böhlau, Weimar 1984, DNB  840940254 .
• Herbert Ewe: Stralsund . 1st edition. Carl Hinstorff, Rostock 1987, ISBN 3-356-00082-9 .
• Herbert Ewe, Harry Hardenberg, Günter Ewald: Stralsund. The city by the sea . Carl Hinstorff, Rostock 1997, ISBN 3-356-00738-6 (illustrated book).
• Martin Steinkühler: Construction of the 2nd Strelasund crossing . In: Civil engineering . 118th year, no. 4 . Neumarkt April 2006, p. 186–191 ( baumaschine.de [PDF; 4.4 MB ; accessed on March 27, 2013]).
• Wolfgang Rudolph: Stralsund. The city by the sea . Ed .: Käthe Miethe . Carl Hinstorff, Rostock 1955, DNB  454220316 .

Web links

Commons : Strelasundquerung  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official charts for small and sport shipping, set 3006, sheet 22 (2017/2018 edition of January 13, 2017) and official nautical charts 1579 (5th edition of May 27, 2016) and 1622 (11th edition of November 13th 2015), BSH , Hamburg and Rostock
2. ^ Robert Bassel: Bridge over the bay from Stralsund to Rügen. Schinkel competition 1879. In: tu-berlin.de. Technische Universität Berlin, accessed on March 27, 2013 (online architecture museum).  
3. ↑ Ostsee-Zeitung (Ed.): Planning for the renovation of the old Rügen dam begins . Stralsund October 25, 2007 (newspaper article).
4. ↑ Ostsee-Zeitung (ed.): "Rest for the next 30 years" . Stralsund December 12, 2011 (newspaper article).
5. ↑ When the GDR wanted to sacrifice Rügen for armament in: Hamburger Abendblatt , July 26, 2018, p. 10
6. ↑ ^{a b} "We offered Dresden help" - André Keipke from Rostock, architect of the Rügen Bridge and u. a. 1st prize winner of the competition for the Gottleubatalbrücke , in an interview with DNN on May 5, 2007
7. ↑ Strelasund crossing. A two-master for the jump to Rügen. (No longer available online.) In: bmvbs.de. Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, March 14, 2008, archived from the original on March 26, 2013 ; accessed on March 27, 2013 (official information). 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.   
8. ↑ "Already 50,000 visitors welcomed to the Pyloneum", press release on www.stralsund.de, July 6, 2007  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ Ostsee-Zeitung (Ed.): The environmental account Rügenbrücke . Stralsund March 25, 2008 (newspaper article).
10. ↑ Hennerkes: The shell of the new Strelasund crossing is finished. In: eukv.net. European Professional Driver Association, August 1, 2007, accessed on March 27, 2013 .  
11. ↑ (Summary - New: Details) Building a bridge over the Strelasund - The shell of the new Rügen Bridge is largely completed - traffic is to start on October 22nd. By Ralph Sommer, August 4, 2007 ( Memento of November 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Thorsten Beckers: The realization of projects according to the PPP approach on federal highways . Berlin 2005, Failed concession award for the Strelasund crossing and projects that were not pursued, p. 165 ( PDF; 867 kB [accessed on March 27, 2013] dissertation).
13. ↑ B96n: Second Strelasund crossing - from the mainland to the island of Rügen. autobahngeschichte.de, accessed on October 3, 2016 .  
14. ↑ Frequently asked questions about the Rügen feeder road and the Strelasund crossing. (No longer available online.) In: bmvbs.de. Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, August 17, 2011, archived from the original on March 26, 2013 ; accessed on March 27, 2013 (official data). 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.   

Coordinates: 54 ° 18 ′ 29.6 ″  N , 13 ° 6 ′ 39.9 ″  E