Reichenbach Bridge

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Reichenbachbrücke, in the background the Mariahilfkirche
Reichenbachbrücke, in the background St. Maximilian
Sculpture in the southwest

The Reichenbachbrücke is an arch bridge over the Isar in Munich and connects the Isar suburb on the left of the Isar with the Au on the right of the Isar. The bridge as well as Reichenbachstrasse leading away from it to the north are named after the Bavarian inventor and engineer Georg Friedrich von Reichenbach .

history

Former wooden bridges

Already in 1832 was the then city architect Karl Muffat a wooden bridge with 15 at the site of today's Reichenbachbrücke Jochen built, connect the suburb of Au with Munich. After the collapse of a yoke in 1840, a new building designed by Muffat and the architect Friedrich von Gärtner was erected in 1842/43 , which withstood all subsequent floods, to everyone's astonishment even the flood of the century in September 1899 , to which the iron Bogenhausen Bridge and the Luitpold Bridge fell victim .

Bridge building program

However, the wooden bridge no longer met the traffic requirements. In addition, the desire of the population for a direct bridge connection between Mariahilfplatz in the center of the Au and the city center became increasingly clear. The city therefore announced the construction of the Reichenbach and Cornelius bridges . The company Sager & Woerner , which was already involved in the construction of the new Luitpold Bridge and was still based in Aschaffenburg at the time , was awarded the contract.

Sager & Woerner then submitted an offer to the city not only to build the Luitpold Bridge and the two other bridges that have now been commissioned, but also to build the Bogenhausen Bridge and the Wittelsbach Bridge. These five bridges could be made inexpensive because they largely correspond to a model and all devices are already on site. The elaborate falsework could be used several times and the workforce familiar with the task could be kept busy. The emergency bridges required to maintain traffic could also be used repeatedly. Sager & Woerner also offered to extend the too narrow Maximiliansbrücke or to build a new one. This offer met with fierce opposition from Munich construction and transport companies, who feared for their earning potential, and concerns on the part of the city because of the great financial burden. Nevertheless, on July 18, 1901, the city placed the order to build the Bogenhausen, Maximilians and Wittelsbach bridges in addition to the Reichenbach and Cornelius bridges. The old Wittelsbach iron bridge was to be moved to Thalkirchen . It was made a condition that Sager & Woerner relocated their company headquarters to Munich, employed mostly Munich workers and employed Munich subcontractors.

Concrete bridge

Construction of the new bridge began in the summer of 1902. Since it was to be built in exactly the same place as the old one, but traffic over the Isar had to be maintained, the old wooden bridge was moved 25 m to the south. In 1 hour and 40 minutes, the wooden bridge was pulled to its new location on 14 cm thick iron balls on gently sloping sliding tracks.

Friedrich von Thiersch was responsible for the design of the concrete bridge clad with shell limestone, and Sager & Woerner was responsible for the design and construction . The bridge was opened to traffic on July 17, 1903, after which the coats of arms of the city of Munich and the state of Bavaria and the reliefs were attached to the pillars. The stone figures were not erected until 1925.

In 1964 the bridge was renovated and widened. Their original form has been simplified. In 2000 it was renovated again.

On January 11, 2011, an aerial bomb from World War II (125 kg) was found below the bridge; it could be defused safely and blown up in a safe environment.

Technical specifications

The bridge is 135 m long in total. Its four flat, of tamped concrete existing three-hinge arches have spans of 44 m, 28 m, 27 m and 26 m. The joints in the longest arch are made of steel, those of the others are made of lead. The longest arch spanned the normal river bed, the other three spanned the flood bed before the renaturation measures. During the renovation in 1964, the pavement slab and the substructure were demolished and replaced by a reinforced concrete substructure, a protective concrete layer, a seal and precast reinforced concrete panels for the pavement slab widened to 24 m. The natural stone cladding made of shell limestone blocks could be preserved. At the same time, the cycle and footpath tunnel on the Auer bank was renovated. The bridge has a load capacity of 60 t.

The Wittelsbach Bridge has the same dimensions (exactly the same spans), as the same falsework was used there after the Reichenbach Bridge was built in order to keep the construction costs as low as possible.

literature

Web links

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

Coordinates: 48 ° 7 ′ 37.7 ″  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 38 ″  E