East – Hemmoor transporter bridge

East Transporter Bridge

The Osten Transporter Bridge is a 1909 put into operation transporter bridge in the district of Cuxhaven . It crosses the Oste between Osten and Hemmoor . The ferry has been under protection as a technical cultural monument since 1974 . Today it is part of the German Ferry Route tourist route .

history

At the end of the 19th century, the community of Osten was considering replacing the Prahmfähre , which had been in operation up to that point and which operated between Osten and Basbeck (since 1968 the district of Hemmoor) over the Oste, by building a swing bridge . Up until then, the main problem was the availability of the ferry connection, which was impaired by high water levels in the East, influenced by the tides of the North Sea, by storms and by ice drift. However, the construction of a swing bridge was abandoned due to the high costs (the approximate calculation was 420,000 marks ) and the loss of time in operating the swing bridge.

Transporter bridge under construction

Transporter bridge while translating

On May 10, 1899, the East City Council decided instead to build a transporter ferry that could move road traffic across the East regardless of the weather. The specification for the construction was that the gondola had space for two coupled carts and 25 people. The supporting structure was to be built so high that “fully-masted seagoing vessels” could pass through them without hindrance. This required a clearance height of 21 m above the highest water level.

Since the spring of 1903, the MAN plant in Gustavsburg and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) have been working out specific plans for the design of the system. However, since the financing of the ferry construction could not be clarified until April 1908, construction work began at the end of 1908. The construction management was the responsibility of the Berlin engineer Max Pinette . Despite the unfavorable start of construction in winter, the facility was completed by August 1909. The construction costs, including the electrical center, amounted to 180,000 marks . The official test loading and acceptance took place on September 25, 1909. The official inauguration ceremony took place on October 1st, 1909 on the Basbecker Ufer.

The system underwent its first change in the 1920s, when the electric drive was switched from direct to three-phase current .

The increasing numbers of passengers carried in the context of mass motorization and the very low capacity of the transporter ferry after the end of the Second World War quickly led to long waiting times at the transporter ferry and thus to correspondingly large traffic obstructions; during this time the transporter bridge always made a profit. In order to take into account the increasing vehicle loads, the lower part of the ferry gondola was replaced in 1966 as a result of a finding by the TÜV . At that time, however, a bridge was already being planned in the course of the construction of the bypass in the east.

After the bridge in the east for federal highway 495 , built between 1969 and 1974, was opened to traffic on May 30, 1974, the ferry was shut down for public transport the following day. In 1975 the Land Hadeln district took over the transporter bridge. In 1975/76 the ferry structure was overhauled ( sandblasting and new paintwork ).

On October 17, 1975, the “Promotion Society for the Preservation of the Eastern Transporter Bridge” was founded as an association. The development company took over the operation of the ferry for tourism purposes.

In an expert report prepared in 2001, it was found that there were significant deficiencies in the shoring and the technology that led to the shutdown of operations. In addition to the drive, the electrics had to be replaced and rust protection measures had to be taken on the scaffolding. 1.1 million euros , mainly funds from the state of Lower Saxony , were made available for the renovation . The renovation was completed in 2006, and since then tourist trips have been made again with the transporter bridge. It has become a popular excursion destination and a symbol of the Osteland region and the German Ferry Route.

In 2009, the Federal Chamber of Engineers recognized the transporter bridge as a historical landmark of civil engineering in Germany .

Technical specifications

Lateral dimensions

Amount of steel used: 286 tons
Length: 90 m
Support span of the superstructure: 80 m
Construction lower edge: 30 m above sea level
Height of the compartment scaffolding: 8 m
Total height: 38 m
Portal width: 25 m
Support wall distance: 10 m
Floating frame: 8 m × 8.75 m
Clearance height at the highest water level: 21 m
Gauge of the wagon track: 9.20 m
Load capacity: 18 t
Size of the gondola: 16 m × 4.30 m
Dead weight of the gondola: 34 t
Motor: E-motor with an output of 13 kW

literature

Transporter bridge over the Oste to the east. Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 18, Issue 97 (December 4, 1909), pp. 665–667 and Issue 103 (December 25, 1909), pp. 705–708.
Electric powered transporter bridge. Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, Volume 31, Issue 18 (May 5, 1910), pp. 458–459.
Gisela Tiedemann, Jochen Bölsche: About the Oste / Stories from 100 years of the Osten-Hemmoor transporter bridge . MCE Verlag, Drochtersen 2009, ISBN 978-3-938097-17-5 .
Wolfgang Neß , Christine Onnen, Dirk J. Peters : The transporter ferry Osten-Hemmoor. (= Historic landmarks of civil engineering in Germany. Volume 4). Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-941867-02-4 .
Peter Raap : A landmark of civil engineering - planning, construction and history of the transporter bridge over the Oste from 1897 to 2009 . Low German homeland paper of the men from Morgenstern 719 (November 2009). [1]