Dozens of motorway bridges are in questionable condition

As of: September 30, 2024 9:28 a.m

Construction experts classify numerous motorway bridges in Germany as urgently in need of renovation. The worst-rated buildings are primarily located in four federal states.

According to data analysis by construction experts, many motorway bridges in Germany are in a questionable condition. A total of 43 motorway bridges with a length of more than 50 meters are in an “inadequate” condition, according to an analysis by the Federal Quality Association for the Repair of Concrete Structures available to the German Press Agency. This means that stability, traffic safety or both are significantly impaired or no longer exist.

Politicians and the federal highway company must act now, explains Marco Götze, chairman of the Federal Quality Association. “Especially when it comes to motorway bridges, we cannot rely on the next accident being as minor as the partial collapse of the Carola Bridge in Dresden.”

Data from around 3,800 bridges

According to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, there are a total of around 40,000 motorway and federal road bridges with 52,000 sections in Germany. According to its own information, the Federal Quality Association has now identified those that have the worst condition grades in Germany out of 3,786 motorway bridges with a length of at least 50 meters. The investigation was based on bridge statistics published regularly by the Federal Highway Research Institute.

Accordingly, of the 100 worst-rated bridges with a length of at least 50 meters, most are in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. These states, along with Lower Saxony, are among the federal states with the most motorway bridges overall.

Every tenth bridge is “not sufficient”

The evaluation is based on condition grades that indicate acute damage and signs of wear. There is also the so-called load index, which evaluates the performance of the bridge based on age and material.

Of the 3,786 motorway bridges with a minimum length of 50 meters, 1,382 were given a condition rating of “sufficient”, while 378 were rated as “inadequate”. One in five of Germany’s 100 motorway bridges most in need of renovation are in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Freight traffic has increased significantly

According to the federal Autobahn GmbH, around 55 percent of all bridge structures in Germany were built before 1985. With an average service life of around 70 years, the bridges have reached the end of their life cycle and need to be replaced. In addition, the amount of freight and heavy goods traffic has increased enormously. “A single truck puts as much wear and tear on the road as many thousands of cars. And here the bridges suffer particularly,” writes Autobahn GmbH.

The construction industry association announced in July that the increasing mobility of society, economic growth and the central location as a transport hub in the middle of Europe had led to domestic freight transport volumes by road, rail and water increasing by 74 percent between 1991 and 2022 have.

According to the construction industry, the increased burden, together with insufficient maintenance investments in the past, has led to a significant deterioration in quality, especially on federal transport routes.

400 bridges are to be renovated every year

In March 2022, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) presented a package of measures for faster bridge modernization. In the coming years, 400 bridges per year are to be renovated. The Rahmede motorway bridge on the Sauerland line (A45) became known nationwide. It was closed due to serious damage and has since been blown up. A new building is planned.

“Modernizing its bridges is a top priority for the federal government,” Wissing said recently. “In a first step, we have our sights set on a core network of important motorway corridors that require consistently high-performance bridges.” To do this, around 4,000 bridges would first have to be modernized, which would correspond to an area of ​​3.2 million square meters or 450 football fields.

“By the end of 2024, we will probably have modernized more than 980,000 square meters of bridge area. That is the equivalent of 137 football fields and corresponds to around 30 percent of the total bridge area that needs to be modernized in the first step,” said the Transport Minister.

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