Winterhafenbrücke

The new Winterhafenbrücke

The Winterhafenbrücke is a Viennese railway bridge that crosses the Freudenau harbor , also known as the Winterhafen, and the Danube Canal and connects the Donauuferbahn (along the right bank of the Danube) with the Donauländebahn (west-east connection in the south of the urban area). It is often referred to in literature as the Freudenauer Hafenbrücke (like the road bridge of the same name). It was destroyed in the Second World War, was only rebuilt from 2007 and has been open to traffic since the end of 2008.

location

The Winterhafenbrücke is the southernmost Danube Canal bridge in Vienna. It is located downstream directly below the Freudenauer Hafenbrücke , a road bridge opened in 1958. On the right bank of the Danube Canal lies the village of Albern (today part of the Simmering district ), the northern end of the bridge is in the Leopoldstadt district on the island between the Danube and the Danube Canal.

1880-1945

Plan drawing of the old Winterhafenbrücke

In order to ensure the supply of ore from the Erzberg to the blast furnaces of the Innerberg main trade union in Klein Schwechat and to connect various industrial companies (especially the Dreher brewery ), the Empress Elisabeth Railway opened the Donauländebahn between Hetzendorf and Kaiserebersdorf or Albern on May 3, 1872 . The railway was also supposed to be used for handling goods on the Danube , but the port was still under construction. After the Danube regulation , the state-built Danube Bank Railway was opened on October 26, 1876 between the Donaukaibahnhof and the Stadlauer Ostbahnbrücke , which was temporarily operated by the Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn .

A connection between the two lines was now obvious, which is why a bridge was built over the Danube Canal in July 1880 and another over the winter harbor in the following month. The 5.3 kilometer long line began operating on October 12, 1880. Both bridges were single-track arched bridges with semi-parabolic girders , the Danube Canal Bridge being 90.0 meters long and the one over the port 61.6 meters. Therefore, the two arches had different heights. The central pillar was common to both bridges. The total costs for the Winterhafenbrücke and the Uferbahnbrücke were 175,000 guilders.

The bridge was used by the kkStB for both freight and passenger traffic, as the lines were part of the extended light rail network . Due to the fact that the Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Bahn had made a contribution of 150,000 guilders as well as an annual pension of 10,000 guilders, it too had the right to use the Danube shore line, including the two bridges over the Danube Canal. The passenger traffic was not very important and was stopped in 1939. During the Second World War , the port was expanded and was therefore a preferred target for bombing raids. However, the bridges remained undamaged because they were defended by their own anti-aircraft battery . At the beginning of the battle for Vienna in April 1945, however, they were blown up by the Wehrmacht .

After 1945

Bridge piers between the Winterhafen and the Danube Canal with still clearly recognizable war damage (photo 2005)

To enable shipping again , the structural parts were removed from the Danube Canal. In 1954 the Council of Ministers approved funds for reconstruction. The erection of the Iron Curtain , however, led to a sharp decline in freight traffic on the Danube. Therefore, the reconstruction of the bridge was seen as unnecessary. Pillars and access ramps were still in place for over sixty years, so that it was one of the last war ruins in Vienna (see illustrations). However, the railway line was never officially closed, so no new concession was necessary to reopen it.

Reconstruction projects

The reconstruction of the bridges was part of almost all traffic concepts of the post-war period, especially since the traffic concept of 1971 it has never been missing. Nevertheless, the new building did not come about for a long time.

The increasing load on the railway lines close to the city meant that the Ministry of Transport entrusted the ÖBB with the planning under the eighth transmission regulation and the restoration of the line under the eleventh. A 172 meter long bridge was planned for this. Albert Wimmer emerged victorious from a competition between six architectural offices with an asymmetrical steel bridge consisting of a truss bridge over the Danube Canal and a trough bridge over the Winterhafen.

Although a railway embankment was heaped up as part of the construction of the Freudenau power plant , the General Transport Plan for Austria , which was last amended in 2002 , provided for the start of construction to be postponed to 2012. The City of Vienna then agreed to pre-finance the construction with 122 million euros so that the bridge could be put into operation at the end of 2009 (status: 2/2007).

Construction of the bridge

The official groundbreaking ceremony took place on February 13, 2007 with Mayor Michael Häupl and Federal Minister of Infrastructure Werner Faymann . The expansion of the Vienna harbor by the city administration suggested that construction should be accelerated further so that it could be completed in summer 2008 much earlier than originally planned. The bridge is now around 168 meters long. On September 1, 2008, the new container terminal was opened in the Freudenau port. To underline the necessity of the new Winterhafenbrücke, the city's port operating company stated that it had handled over 320,000 containers (equivalent to 70 full freight trains per week) in 2007. The bridge has been in regular operation since the end of 2008; its actual use was delayed by a few months due to the closure of the adjoining section of the Donauländebahn due to renovation work.

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  The support of the old bridge south of the Danube Canal (Simmeringer side)

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  The pillar to the north of the winter harbor (Leopoldstadt side) was removed at the beginning of 2007, the Freudenau harbor bridge on the left

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  The same place as in the previous picture, about a year later

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  The new bridge under construction on the right bank of the Danube Canal in October 2007

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  The new bridge under construction

ÖBB Bau AG not only closed the gap, but also completely adapted the Donauländebahn or Donauuferbahn to a track length of 8.8 kilometers and rebuilt 2.3 kilometers of track. The continuously electrified route, with a capacity of around 70 freight trains per day, is designed for an axle load of 22.5 tons and an operating speed of 80 km / h. Its signaling was completed in autumn 2008.

The building received the Brunel Award in 2011 . This internationally recognized builder award from the railway company is awarded every three years. In 2011, two railway bridges were awarded worldwide.

literature

• Ludwig Huss: Communications about the Danube bank railway line Vienna. Kaiser-Ebersdorf and the local train from Erbersdorf to Würbenthal . In: Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. 1881, ISSN  0372-9605 , p. 1.
• Peter Wegenstein: Railway bridges in Austria. Verlag Pospischil, Vienna 1986 ( train in Fig. 50).
• Alfred Horn: The Freudenauer Bridge in Vienna. In: Railway Austria. 1996/5, ISSN  0013-2756 , pp. 196-197.
• Peter Seelmann: Re-erection of the Freudenauer Hafenbrücke. In: Railway Austria. 11, 2003, ISSN  0013-2756 , pp. 520-521.

Web links

Commons : Winterhafenbrücke  - collection of images

• ÖBB Infrastruktur Conversion Terminal Freudenau, status: February 2010 accessed on 6 January 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Trade, Industry, Transport and Agriculture. (…) Railway buildings in 1876. In:  Wiener Zeitung , October 5, 1877, p. 7, top left. (Online at ANNO ).
2. ^ Daily newspaper Kurier , Vienna, September 2, 2008, p. 18

Coordinates: 48 ° 10 ′ 17 "  N , 16 ° 28 ′ 47.6"  E