Leverkusen Rhine Bridge

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Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 4 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 41"  E

A1 Leverkusen Rhine Bridge
Leverkusen Rhine Bridge
View of the motorway bridge from Leverkusen - Wiesdorf
Official name Leverkusen Rhine Bridge
Convicted A 1
Crossing of Rhine
place Cologne - Merkenich - Leverkusen - Wiesdorf
overall length 1061 m
width 37.1 m
Longest span 280 m
vehicles per day 111,900 (2017)
start of building 1962
completion 1965
opening July 5, 1965
planner Hellmut Homberg
location
Rhine bridge Leverkusen (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Leverkusen Rhine Bridge

The Rhine bridge Leverkusen is the conversion of A 1 and thus of the northern Cologne motorway ring over the Rhine .

The original bridge (1965)

Bridge before opening in 1965

The Merkenich district of Cologne is on the left bank of the Rhine and Leverkusen -Wiesdorf is on the right bank of the Rhine . Since the city limits are in the middle of the river, half of the bridge is in the Cologne city area and is usually counted as the northernmost of Cologne's eight Rhine bridges.

In September 1959, the first tender for a four-lane motorway bridge with a main opening of 280 m and the usual clearance on the Rhine of 9.10 m above HSW was issued . In March 1960, offers were submitted for various cable-stayed bridges , but also steel girder bridges with haunched solid wall girders .

Due to changes in the fundamentals, a second tender had to be carried out, which took into account a modified road traffic planning and provided for enlarged openings of the approach bridges with regard to floods and ice drift. A successful bidder was a consortium of the companies Aug. Klönne , MAN Werk Gustavsburg , Hein Lehmann AG, Krupp Maschinen- und Stahlbau Rheinhausen and Stahlbau Humboldt AG with a design drawn up by the civil engineers H. Schumann and Hellmut Homberg . After the Norderelbbrücke over the Norderelbe, also planned by Hellmut Homberg and opened in 1963, it was the second cable-stayed bridge for overpassing motorways.

The 1061 m long bridge structure, built from 1962 and opened on July 5, 1965, was designed for a four-lane motorway with hard shoulder on both sides, a cycle and moped lane on the north and a slightly narrower sidewalk on the south. The bridge axis runs straight up to 147.08 m in front of the Leverkusen abutment , where a clothoid initiates a right turn. In this area, the lane for the entrances and exits starting here will also be widened.

The total of around 1061 m long structure consists of the 372 m long, six-span foreland bridge on the left bank of the Rhine made of prestressed concrete and the steel cable-stayed bridge over the Rhine. The cable-stayed bridge is 687.32 m long and has five openings with spans of 97.40 + 106.26 + 280.00 + 106.26 + 97.40 m. Its support system, which runs through the five fields, consists of a two-cell, 14 m wide box girder , above which the 37.80 m wide carriageway girder protrudes from an orthotropic plate . On the side of the box girder, 8.05 m wide strips are supported with diagonal struts against the lower edge of the box girder. The 4.10 m wide cycle and moped lane and the 3.60 m wide sidewalk are self-supporting. The overall height of the hollow box is 4.20 m, but in the area of ​​the outermost opening on the right bank of the Rhine it decreases linearly to 3.29 m in order to enable the later construction of today's A 59 to Rheinallee. In the area of ​​the rope anchoring, the box girders are stiffened by cross disks, otherwise by truss struts .

A bird's eye view of the Rhine bridge in Leverkusen

The two pylons of the bridge consist of individual steel rectangular posts with a hollow cross-section, which are arranged in the central axis of the bridge and protrude 45.10 m above the roadway. In the side view they are 3 m wide, in the longitudinal view along the bridge axis they widen in a wedge shape from 1.80 m at the height of the carriageway to 2.50 m at the top. This ensured that the median was not wider than 3.00 m, but the rope bearings could be accommodated in the tips. The pylon feet are welded, but the stems are riveted. They can be walked on inside via ladders; access is from inside the box girder.

The pylons are each connected to the central axis of the box girder with two, or a total of eight, double cables. The cable-stayed bridge was cantilevered.

Later changes

The Leverkusen Rhine Bridge was designed for 40,000 vehicles per day. Obviously no one could foresee the development of traffic on the motorways and that a new connection would attract motorists. As a result of this increase and the expansion of the Cologne motorway ring and its feeder and connecting routes, traffic on the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge increased to around 120,000 vehicles per day, including 14,000 trucks. During the same period, the permissible axle loads of the trucks increased from 8 t to 10 t or 11.5 t for driven single axles. Due to the increase in traffic, the Kölner Ring was expanded to six lanes between 1990 and 1995.

At the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge, the expansion to six lanes was achieved by converting the emergency lanes into lanes, so that the heavy trucks now drove on the outermost edge of the carriageway slab, which was still supported by diagonal struts. The associated greater leverage increased the effects on the bridge from the increased loads of the increased and heavier traffic. In order to protect pedestrians and cyclists from the trucks that are now driving right next to them, a transparent wind, noise and spray protection wall was installed on both sides. In addition, the directional lanes were provided with crash barriers and concrete protective walls.

Emergency renovation and new construction

Traffic lights and barriers on the Leverkusen side of the A1 to ensure that only cars up to 3.5 t and 2.3 m wide can drive on the bridge.
The traffic light for the driveway coming from Industriestrasse is red because a truck has ignored the 3.5 tonne weight limit

Since the bridge is heavily overloaded after more than 50 years due to the increasing traffic and the expansion to six lanes, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is aiming for a new construction by 2025. Until then, the maximum permissible speed remains limited to 60 km / h. Since November 30, 2012, the bridge has been closed to vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of over 3.5 tons due to cracks in the steel structure. On March 3, 2013, the tonnage restriction was lifted again as an acute intermediate renovation had been successful. On June 16, 2014, the tonnage restriction was reintroduced as the previous interim refurbishment was unsuccessful. As unauthorized vehicles over 3.5 tonnes continued to use the bridge every day and this is the main source of damage, a barrier was set up in autumn 2016 for just under 5 million euros. This prevents access to the bridge for vehicles over 3.5 t and wider than 2.3 m. This leads to traffic problems in front of the bridge, as every wrong driving truck leads to a temporary closure of the motorway. The mass of the bridge was increased considerably by reinforcing the load-bearing structures. To compensate for this, the dispensable concrete protective walls were removed.

The repair attempts showed that the old bridge could no longer be saved. Therefore, the new construction should take place earlier than originally planned, namely by 2020 at the latest. According to the latest information (as of June 2019), the construction process will be delayed by one year due to a delay in the exploration of explosives, so that the bridge will not be completed until 2025. In 2016, the then North Rhine-Westphalian Transport Minister Michael Groschek described the bridge as a “memorial to the catastrophic state of the German infrastructure”. After the planners are assuming an increased traffic load on the A1 of more than 25 percent by 2025, the new bridge is to have ten lanes.

With the sixth law amending the Federal Trunk Road Act in 2015, actions against the planning approval were limited to the Federal Administrative Court in order to accelerate construction. The federal government is providing 740 million euros for the bridge.

Aerial view of the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge taken from Cologne, 2017. The first new bridge is to be built to the left of the bridge. On the far left, on the other bank of the Rhine, you can see the old Dhünnaue deposit that is about to be opened.
Symbolic groundbreaking ceremony

On November 10, 2016, the Cologne district government issued the planning approval decision for the new Leverkusen bridge over the Rhine. The existing bridge is to be replaced at the same place by two bridge structures with five lanes each, a hard shoulder and separate bike / footpaths on the respective outer sides. The public display followed on November 24, 2016 and lasted 14 days. Against the new building u. a. the citizens' initiative NGL - Network against Noise, Fine Dust and Other Harmful Immissions eV (NGL) sued. The two pending lawsuits were dismissed by the Federal Administrative Court on October 11, 2017.

Construction of the foreland bridge on the left bank of the Rhine (April 2020)

The first groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the bridge officially took place on December 14, 2017. The Austrian construction group Porr was commissioned with the construction of the new Rhine bridge in two separate sub-structures, the demolition of the existing structure, the demolition and new construction of the K3 ramp for 362 million euros net.

In April 2020, defects in steel components of the bridge that Porr had made in China became known to the public before they were installed; On the part of the state road construction company, the deficiencies had already been a topic of discussion with the general contractor Porr since 2019. It was initially unclear whether the deficiencies could be rectified before installation in Germany or whether a new production would be necessary, which could delay completion by more than a year. Since no agreement could be reached on the defects found and their elimination, strassen.nrw terminated the contract with Porr with immediate effect. The project should now be re-tendered quickly. This means that the completion of the first (partial) bridge will probably be delayed until 2023. Whether further delays in the overall project will be expected when the existing bridge is subsequently demolished due to - according to Porr - allegedly built-in asbestos and PCBs, remains to be seen not foreseeable.

Alternative tunneling

Parallel to the efforts to promote a new building of the bridge, voted the citizens' initiative LEV must live in Leverkusen and neighboring Cologne for a tunnel solution, as for those of the country Straßenbau NRW , among others, the opening of the contaminated site planned widening and local installation of the new bridge Dhünnaue necessary is. This is one of the largest disorganized landfills in Europe, which was set up and used by Bayer AG from 1923 to 1965 .

In the planning approval decision of the Cologne district government, tunnel variants were already rejected in the rough examination on the grounds that the expected considerable additional costs and a significantly longer construction time would be an additional burden compared to a plan-approved 10-lane bridge. Party political interests and pressure from the economy were decisive for the decision.

Citizens' initiatives from Leverkusen and Cologne organized under LEV muss Leben are currently promoting a so-called combination solution. This is to combine a renewed Rhine bridge for regional traffic (instead of a 10-lane double bridge) with a long Rhine tunnel for supraregional traffic.

Against the background of the current diesel driving bans and limit values ​​that are regularly exceeded at Leverkusen measuring stations, discussions in Leverkusen are whether this might not be the most economical solution for the city in the long term. The German Environmental Aid Association has already announced the city of possible legal actions.

Trivia

Web links

Commons : Rheinbrücke Leverkusen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Contract announcement construction contract: 45-12-0047; BW "Rheinbrücke Leverkusen" (foreland and river), total repair from above, km 406.739, BW no. 4907 597 October 16, 2012
  2. ↑ Manual road traffic census 2015 - results on federal motorways - ; bast.de, PDF document, January 26, 2017, accessed on October 16, 2017
  3. ↑ a b c d e f H. Daniel: The federal motorway bridge over the Rhine near Leverkusen. In: Stahlbau , February 1965 No. 2, p. 33; March No. 3, p. 83; April No. 4, p. 115; May No. 5, p. 153; December 1965 No. 12, p. 362.
  4. ^ Holger Svensson: Cable-stayed bridges. 40 years of experience worldwide. Ernst & Sohn, Weinheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-433-02977-0 , p. 64.
  5. ^ H. Schumann, A. Fahlbusch: The federal motorway bridge over the Rhine near Leverkusen. In: Stahlbau , April 1970 No. 4, p. 97.
  6. ↑ a b The Leverkusen Rhine Bridge on Strassen.NRW.de
  7. ↑ Development of the mileage of all motor vehicles in Germany. ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) 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. on ADAC.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adac.de
  8. ↑ Schematic representation of the increase in traffic on the motorways
  9. ↑ a b The development of the Cologne motorway ring on Strassen.NRW.de
  10. ↑ § 34 StVZO
  11. ^ Sarah Brasack: State wants a new Rhine bridge by 2025 . Cologne city indicator . July 10, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  12. ↑ leverkusen.com New radar measuring points on the Leverkusen Rhine bridge
  13. ↑ Reports 2012 ( Memento of the original from December 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.strassen.nrw.de
  14. ↑ Press release from February 22, 2013
  15. ↑ Press release from June 16, 2014
  16. ↑ koeln-nachrichten.de ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / koeln-nachrichten.de
  17. ↑ A1: Truck barrier on the Leverkusen Rhine bridge (www.strassen.nrw.de) (accessed: September 8, 2016)
  18. ↑ a b Transport Minister Dobrindt accelerates the construction of the Leverkusener Brücke, Ingenieur.de (accessed December 18, 2014)
  19. ↑ Information from the Landesbetrieb Straßenbau NRW on the renovation of the Rhine bridge on the A1 (accessed: December 23, 2012) ( Memento of the original from August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.strassen.nrw.de
  20. ^ "Low blow for Leverkusen" - construction of the new Rhine bridge delayed by up to a year In: Kölnische Rundschau . June 14, 2019 ( rundschau-online.de ).
  21. ^ A b Sven Böll, Alexander Neubacher: Ruin Germany . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41, 2016, pp. 26–29.
  22. ↑ Bert-Christoph Gerhards: Start of construction for the new bridge in 2017? . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . April 24, 2013. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  23. ↑ A1: Planning approval decision for the new Leverkusen Rhine bridge is available ( memento of the original from November 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) 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. , Press release of the State Office for Road Construction NRW from November 24, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.strassen.nrw.de
  24. ^ Action dismissed. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . October 11, 2017. Retrieved October 11, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Joint press release of the Ministry of Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the district government of Cologne and Straßen.NRW of October 11, 2017: A1-Rheinbrücke Leverkusen: Federal Administrative Court gives the green light for new construction ( accessed : October 12, 2017)  ( 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.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.strassen.nrw.de  
  26. ↑ Press release of the BVerwG of October 11, 2017: Rheinbrücke Leverkusen: Federal Administrative Court dismisses complaints (accessed: October 12, 2017).
  27. ↑ Judgment of the BVerwG of October 11, 2017, Az. 9 A 14/16 (available at www.dejure.org; also link to the second judgment of October 11, 2017, Az. 9 A 17/16).
  28. ↑ Information on the construction progress of the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge , Landesbetrieb Straßenbau NRW , accessed: June 10, 2018.
  29. ^ A1, new construction of the Rhine bridge in Leverkusen and ramp K35. Notice reference: 05_45-7039-B_45-16-0100.
  30. ^ A1, new construction of the Rhine bridge in Leverkusen and ramp K35. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Report of the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Transport to the State Parliament of May 10, 2020: Status of the new construction of the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge and problems with the construction of the new Leverkusen Rhine Bridge as part of the Autobahn 1 between Cologne and Leverkusen (accessed: May 13, 2020)
  32. ↑ Bernd Bussang, Ludmilla Hauser: Steel components objected to: Material problems during the construction of the Rhine bridge. Retrieved April 19, 2020 .
  33. ↑ New start for Leverkusener Brücke: Straßen.NRW terminates contract with construction company Porr. In: Kölnische Rundschau . April 24, 2020 ( rundschau-online.de ).
  34. ↑ Press release of the State Office for Road Construction in North Rhine-Westphalia of April 24, 2020: Rhine bridge Leverkusen: Straßen.NRW terminates contract with PORR - new tender will be published next week. strassen.nrw.de , accessed on April 25, 2020.
  35. ↑ Steel is said to be faulty - there is a long delay at Leverkusener Brücke. In: Kölnische Rundschau . April 20, 2020 ( rundschau-online.de ).
  36. ^ Page of the City of Leverkusen on the expansion of the motorway
  37. ^ Bert-Christoph Gerhards: Rhine tunnel as an alternative? . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . December 20, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  38. ↑ Thomas Käding: Smart solutions for the Rhine bridge . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . August 9, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  39. ↑ LEV has to live! - Citizens' initiatives together for a BIG COMBINED TUNNEL SOLUTION. In: LEV must live! Retrieved September 17, 2016 .
  40. ↑ Thomas Käding: A1 construction work in Leverkusen: Bayer makes a lot of money from reducing its own contaminated sites . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . ( ksta.de [accessed on October 13, 2018]).
  41. ↑ The combination solution. In: LEV must live! Retrieved October 13, 2018 .
  42. ^ Ralf Krieger: Measurement results in Leverkusen: Too much poison in the city air . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . ( ksta.de [accessed on October 13, 2018]).
  43. ↑ Ralf Krieger: Fine dust in Leverkusen: Private measuring stations contradict official results . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . ( ksta.de [accessed on October 13, 2018]).
  44. ↑ Diesel cars: These cities are threatened with lawsuits over air pollution . In: Spiegel Online . August 24, 2017 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 13, 2018]).
  45. ↑ strassen.nrw.de
  46. ↑ wdrmaus.de wdrmaus.de
The next bridge upstream:
Mülheimer Brücke 		Bridges over the Rhine The next bridge downstream:
Fleher Bridge