Dinslaken
Storm softens Emscher dikes – railway bridge sags
Deutsche Bahn is developing a concept for demolishing the collapsed bridge. photo
© —/City of Dinslaken/dpa
The violent storms of the past few days have dangerously softened the dikes on the Emscher. Now a railway bridge has slipped there. She threatens to fall into the river.
After the massive rainfall of the past few days, a railway bridge over the Emscher on the Lower Rhine has collapsed. “It is to be feared that the bridge will slide completely into the Emscher,” said a spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of the Environment and Transport. The Technical Relief Organization organized powerful pumps.
If the bridge near Dinslaken collapses, this can prevent the debris from damming up the water of the Emscher and causing flooding, said a spokesman for the Emschergenossenschaft. Experts also observed the situation closely on Sunday.
After the violent storms of the past few days, there were already major problems with flood protection on the lower reaches of the Emscher on Friday. The dyke had eroded hundreds of meters, said the Ministry of the Environment. There is a residential area with about 100 houses nearby – in the meantime the question has been raised as to whether the residential area needs to be evacuated. Fire brigade, technical relief organization, police and numerous specialists were involved in a large-scale operation.
No impact on passenger traffic
The railway bridge, which has now collapsed, crosses the Emscher in the area affected by the flood. The single-lane branch line will only be used for freight traffic, said a railway spokesman. There is no impact on passenger traffic.
Deutsche Bahn, as the owner of the bridge, is now developing a concept for how the bridge can be demolished. More detailed information on how to proceed will only be available in the next few days, said the railway spokesman.
Emergency services keep an eye on the bridge until the danger has passed. “There is always a risk of collapse. We have prepared for that,” said Dinslaken Mayor Michaela Eislöffel (independent).
NRW Minister of Transport: “That shouldn’t have happened”
Why the flooding on the Emscher caused such massive damage also raises questions for Environment and Transport Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens). “What is happening here on the dyke should not have happened. This dyke should have withstood this flood,” said the minister, according to “WAZ” on Friday during a visit to Dinslaken.
The Emscher catchment area was massively affected by the heavy rainfall on Thursday and Friday. As a result, according to the Emschergenossenschaft, the small river had at times carried 60,000 liters of water per second. On Friday afternoon, experts had actually given the all-clear cautiously. The water level has dropped and the pressure on the dikes has decreased noticeably, the association reported. Nevertheless, a few hours later on Friday evening, the railway bridge sagged on one side.
The Emscher in the northern Ruhr area was once the dirtiest industrial river in Germany and was used to dispose of wastewater from the Ruhr area. In recent years, the river has been renatured at great expense. A few hundred meters behind the spot near Dinslaken, where the dykes have now been damaged, the Emscher flows into the Rhine.
WAZ report from Friday