Südbrücke (Cologne)

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Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 1 ″  N , 6 ° 58 ′ 24 ″  E

South bridge
South bridge
South bridge
use Railway bridge
Convicted Cologne freight bypass
Crossing of Rhine
place Cologne - Bayenthal / Neustadt-Süd - Cologne- Deutz / Poll
Entertained by Deutsche Bahn (City of Cologne: footpaths, bike paths)
construction Steel bridge
overall length 368 m
width 10.34 m
Longest span 165 m
building-costs 5.5 million marks
start of building 1906/1946
completion 1910 / provisional May 1946/1950
opening April 5, 1910 / October 1, 1950
planner Franz Schwechten : stone construction, towers; Fritz Beermann , Friedrich Dircksen (EBD Cologne): steel arches, construction
location
Südbrücke (Cologne) (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Südbrücke (Cologne)

DB Energie's high-voltage line uses this bridge as an overhead line

The Südbrücke is a bridge over the Rhine in Cologne . On the left bank of the Rhine it forms the border between Cologne-Neustadt-Süd and Cologne-Bayenthal , on the right bank of the Rhine between Cologne-Deutz and Cologne-Poll .

The bridge from the south

The double-track south bridge, which can be driven at 60 km / h, serves rail traffic, pedestrians and cyclists. Since it was built, it has mainly been used for freight traffic. It is part of the Cologne freight bypass . Before the renovation of the Cologne Messe / Deutz station , an ICE line was also routed across the bridge as planned. Apart from individual ICE and EuroNight trains, the bridge for passenger traffic is currently only used unscheduled, for example in the event of disruptions or construction work on the actual routes.

history

Collapse of the south bridge on July 9, 1908
Cologne-Poll, Südbrücke (towers on the right bank of the Rhine). Note the high voltage line mounted on the booms on the towers, the tower is located between the two phases

The south bridge was built from 1906 (start of construction: November 8, 1906) to 1910 for 5.5 million marks by the Royal Prussian State Railway under the direction of the building councilor Fritz Beermann . The drafting was in the hands of Friedrich Dircksen , who also initially led the execution. The Berlin architect Franz Schwechten was commissioned to design the stone structures for the portals, ramps and pillars, and he also designed the corresponding structures for the Hohenzollern Bridge . It was officially put into service on April 5, 1910. The city of Cologne paid for the construction of the sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. Due to a serious accident during the construction of the middle half-timbered arch in 1908, in which eight workers were killed, an opening ceremony was not held.

The steel main construction is in three parts and has a total length of 368 m spans of 101.5 m + 165 m + 101.5 m and 10.34 m width. The stair towers are designed in a neo-Romanesque style and are decorated with rich figurines, which were created by the Berlin sculptor Gotthold Riegelmann (1864–1935).

During the Second World War , the southern bridge was largely destroyed by bombs on January 6, 1945. The central arch in the river had to be blown away and was therefore no longer available for reconstruction. In May 1946 the bridge was initially released provisionally and single-tracked, later rebuilt for 10 million DM and put back into operation on October 1, 1950. As with its northern counterpart, the Hohenzollern Bridge , the decorative portals and parts of the tower architecture were not rebuilt. Part of the ashlar was used to rebuild the stone arches over the Rheinallee and on the Porzer Ufer. The total length of the bridge is now 536 m.

Today the bridge is owned by Deutsche Bahn . The city of Cologne is responsible for the maintenance and care of the sidewalks due to the contracts concluded at the time. On the left bank of the Rhine, at the entrance to the bridge, is the Friedenspark, which has existed since 1914 .

Monument protection

The bridge is now a listed building because of its importance in the history of the railway, because of the steel half-timbered construction and the partially preserved neo-Romanesque stone buildings . The Rhenish Association for the Preservation of Monuments and Landscape Protection listed them as Monument of the Month for May 2006 to draw attention to their condition.

In December 2009, the renovation of the sidewalks and the stair towers on both sides of the Rhine began. The construction time should be 16 months. The costs amounted to about 5.1 million euros. Almost three years after the start of the renovation, the city of Cologne announced the completion of the renovation work, but admitted that the stair towers on the left bank of the Rhine were not yet usable.

Diverted train of line RE 9 on Cologne's south bridge

Traction power line

Railway power line Cologne – Sindorf

The 110-kV traction power line Cologne – Sindorf has been crossing the Rhine since 2002 using cantilevers on the bridge structure. It is noteworthy that each rope is led around the bridge towers on the right bank of the Rhine. Here, the conductors, which are located above the track, are fastened like a busbar as steel pipes on standing insulators.

literature

  • Helmut Neßeler: The south bridge. In: Geschichts- und Heimatverein Rechtsrheinisches Köln eV (Ed.): Yearbook for History and Regional Studies, Volume 21. Cologne 1995.
  • M. Schumann: The construction of the iron structure of the south bridge over the Rhine to Cöln. In: Der Brückenbau 1 (1912), pp. 14–19 and pp. 43–48.
  • Hans-Fried Schierk: 100 years of solid Rhine bridges in North Rhine-Westphalia 1855/1955. Opladen 1985. (= Research reports of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia; NI. 3190 Section Humanities)

Web links

Commons : Kölner Südbrücke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For example: Renewal of the tracks: Hohenzollern Bridge becomes the eye of a needle ; Article on Express.de from January 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d City of Cologne: Renovation of the south bridge begins, accessed on December 5, 2009
  3. ↑ a b to Rheinische Industriekultur
  4. ↑ After Peter Berger: Seven Lost Bridge Years. Kölner Stadtanzeiger Köln of December 9, 2009, p. 28
  5. ↑ Renovation of the south bridge completed
  6. ↑ Press on koeln-unter-hochspannung.de , accessed on August 11, 2014.
The next bridge upstream:
Rodenkirchener Autobahnbrücke 		Bridges over the Rhine The next bridge downstream:
Severinsbrücke