Mintarder Ruhr Valley Bridge
Coordinates: 51 ° 22 ′ 49 ″ N , 6 ° 54 ′ 12 ″ E
 Mintarder Ruhr Valley Bridge
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| Official name | Mintard Ruhr Valley Bridge | |
| use | Federal motorway 52 | |
| Subjugated | Dysentery | |
| place | Mülheim an der Ruhr | |
| construction | Girder bridge with box girder and orthotropic slab | |
| overall length | 1830 m | |
| width | 27.5 m | |
| Longest span | 126 m | |
| Construction height | 4.5 m | |
| height | 65 m | |
| vehicles per day | approx. 80,000 | |
| building-costs | 48,600,000 DM | |
| start of building | March 15, 1963 | |
| completion | 1966 | |
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The Mintarder Ruhrtalbrücke (also called Mintarder Brücke ) is the longest steel road bridge in Germany at 1,830 meters . It is located in the eponymous Mülheim district of Mintard and runs as part of the federal motorway 52 in an east-west direction.
General
Until December 31, 1974 , part of the bridge south of the Ruhr was in the area of the then independent town of Kettwig . As part of a municipal reorganization, in which Kettwig became part of the city of Essen , Mintard was separated from Kettwig and incorporated into Mülheim an der Ruhr, so that the bridge has since then been completely located in the area of the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr.
technology
The bridge spans the Ruhr valley in a wide arc and connects the cities of Düsseldorf and Essen via the A 52 . Previously, this section of the route was the motorway-like federal road 288 . The bridge is still one of the most important bridge building projects in Europe after the Second World War . Planning for this then unique project began in 1960. Construction began in 1963. In mid-1966 the bridge was completely spanned over the Ruhr Valley.
The structure rests on 18 hollow pillars. The greatest height of the carriageway is 65 m above the Ruhr , the bridge width between the railings is 27.3 m. The total area of the bridge is 49,176 square meters. The total span of the 19-span bridge is 1,800.0 m with spans of 66.6 m - 86.4 m - 4 × 90.0 m - 4 × 108.0 m - 126.0 m - 2 × 108.0 m - 4 × 90.0 m - 86.4 m - 66.6 m. With a horizontal radius of curvature of 3,000 m, the structure only has expansion joints at the two abutments . The superstructure consists of a single-cell steel box girder that is 4.5 m high and 7.5 m wide. The longitudinal gradient is 0.4 percent in the direction of Düsseldorf, the transverse gradient 1.5 percent. The construction costs amounted to the equivalent of around twenty million euros .
Repair after forty years
After almost forty years of existence of the bridge, the traffic load has become so great that the steel structure had to be reinforced accordingly, which started in 2001 together with a complete repair and was completed at the end of 2005. The concrete was only replaced on the pillars and abutments. According to today's standard, mandatory inspections of the interior of the pillars and any repairs must be carried out, for which stairs were built into the pillars. Then the bridge superstructure was reinforced with cross braces in the bridge box girder for future traffic. The corrosion protection was also renewed. Finally, the road surface was covered with mastic asphalt , which should withstand the increasing traffic for about twenty years. Today around 80,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day. The entire renovation cost around 14 million euros .
In the summer of 2013 the bridge was closed for three months to rehabilitate the iron crossings, which led to significant traffic disruptions. From July 1 to September 30, the journey to Essen was closed to traffic - from October 1, the lane was reopened to traffic as planned.
Planned demolition and new construction
On July 11, 2019, the State Office for Road Construction NRW announced that the Ruhr Valley Bridge would be demolished and completely rebuilt. For the new construction, the first part of the new bridge will be placed next to the old one. Then the old one will be dismantled or blown up, then the second part of the new bridge will be built in the same place. During the entire construction period, the bridge will have four lanes, and six lanes once it is fully completed. Construction is expected to start in 2024. The construction project is expected to cost 233 million euros.
Views
Facing west
Facing east
Ruhr dike under the bridge
Impression in November
During the bridge construction in 1965
Fates
Shortly before completion, a worker lost his life when the formwork on the abutment on the Essen side, into which concrete had been poured, was checked during stormy and rainy weather .
In 1994 the daughter of the caretaker of a large industrialist was kidnapped by two brothers, held captive in the box girder under the roadway for eleven days and raped by one of the two. There were blackmail attempts. The twelve-year-old victim was discovered by chance due to the observation of a resident of the nearby Heidendoren street or during maintenance work and was released. The two perpetrators were arrested shortly afterwards and sentenced.
In July 2003, one worker was killed while repairing the bridge and another was seriously injured when a twenty-meter-high work platform broke off one of the pillars.
The bridge gained notoriety soon after its completion due to frequent suicides . After an average of around four cases per year since its completion, the bridge railings were replaced by a several meter high fence in the 1980s.
literature
- Christoph Schmitz: The Ruhr bridges. From the source to the mouth between then and now. Ardey-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-87023-311-7
Web links
- Structurae: Ruhrtalbrücke Mintard
- Report and photo series (also with pictures from the construction) on derwesten.de
- Mintarder Bridge at brueckenweb
Individual evidence
- ↑ derwesten.de
- ^ Ruhr valley bridge between Düsseldorf and Essen will be demolished and rebuilt Report in the daily newspaper Rheinische Post of July 11, 2019, accessed on July 11, 2019
- ↑ Ruhr valley bridge near Mülheim will be demolished and rebuilt
- ↑ a b c Mark Benecke : Murder methods . 9th edition. Bastei Lübbe paperbacks and Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-404-60545-3 , p. 95 ff .
- ↑ From the FOCUS archive, see: KARSTEN, 21, UND DANIEL, 26 ; Retrieved March 29, 2013
- ↑ Trapped in the Ruhr Valley Bridge - the kidnapping of Manuela S .; accessed on July 14, 2019