St. Alban Bridge

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Coordinates: 47 ° 33 ′ 29 "  N , 7 ° 36 ′ 51"  E ; CH1903:  613,204  /  267487

St. Alban Bridge
St. Alban Bridge
St. Albanbrücke shortly after the opening
Convicted Road traffic
Subjugated Rhine
place Basel
construction T-beam bridge with orthotropic deck slab
overall length 250 m
width 22 m
Number of openings 3
Longest span 135 m
start of building July 1953
completion April 2, 1955
construction time 21.5 months
closure 1973 (demolition)
location
St. Albanbrücke (Canton of Basel-Stadt)
St. Alban Bridge

The St. Alban Bridge was a Rhine crossing in the Swiss city ​​of Basel , was in operation from 1955 to 1973 and had to give way to the ten-lane Black Forest Bridge . It was the first bridge in Switzerland with an orthotropic deck .

prehistory

When, at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1901, a building line plan was drawn up for the expansion of the Wettstein , St. Alban and Breite districts , a road bridge 120 meters below the connecting railway bridge was also drawn in. After the First World War , the population began to demand the construction of this bridge. In 1926 a loan was approved for a preliminary study of another Rhine crossing and on August 7th of the same year a referendum called for the construction of a Hallwil bridge to be built soon . Priority was given to the construction of the Dreirosen Bridge, especially since it was to be clarified whether a new bridge, a Hallwil or Breitebrücke should not be built as a two-storey combination with the railway bridge to be converted. Since the Wettstein Bridge had to be widened, the construction of the bridge was postponed further. The bridge became more and more urgent, as it was intended to channel through traffic Rhine- Wiesental and heavy traffic between the Rhine port and Central Switzerland .

In June 1949, the Grand Council of Basel presented advice for the construction of a suspension bridge with a span of 220 meters to meet the needs of navigation on the Rhine . But this project did not have a favorable fate either, and after more than three years of study, the appointed commission presented the construction of a prestressed concrete bridge with a central opening of 135 meters. As experience with prestressed concrete was still largely lacking, the government decided to build a light steel girder bridge over the Rhine, and on May 10, 1953 the people agreed to the construction of a St. Alban bridge .

bridge

Construction work began in July 1953. The company Buss AG , the engineering bureau A. Aegerter that Dr. O. Bosshardt AG and the civil engineering company Ed. Züblin & Cie. AG built a 250 m long welded T- beam bridge with an orthotropic deck that rested on two piers. The three fields had spans of 57.5 m, 135.0 m and 57.5 m. With a maximum construction height of 5.6 meters above the pillars and 2.75 meters in the main span, the structure was 22 meters wide. The road had four tracks 3 m each, two with this lying at the same height Velo strips each 2 m wide and two sidewalks of 3 m width. The top of the roadway was 1.30 m above the abutments. After a construction period of only 21½ months, traffic rolled over the elegant bridge for the first time on April 2, 1955, the light construction of which quickly earned it the nickname Zitterbrücke . On June 18 and 19, 1955, a festival was held to inaugurate the bridge.

cancellation

It soon became apparent that the bridge in connection with the planned connection between the A2 , A3 and German A5 motorways was too small and had to be replaced by a wider motorway bridge. The ten-lane motorway bridge, the Black Forest Bridge, was then built in the gap between the connecting railway bridge and the St. Alban Bridge . In 1973 the St. Alban Bridge was demolished; The Tinguely Museum is located at the site of the north head of the bridge .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A. Aegerter: The St. Alban Bridge over the Rhine in Basel . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 75 , no. 28 , 1957, pp. 441-446 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-63389 .