The renovation of the Marienbrücke near Neuschwanstein Castle, which has been closed for more than a year, is on schedule. “Everything is going according to plan,” said Heiko Oehme from the construction department of the Bavarian Palace Administration. It is assumed that the bridge will be reopened to pedestrians in the current hiking season. For this, nine rock anchors would have to be replaced or newly drilled into the rocks above the Pöllat Gorge, said Oehme. The anchors, which are up to 15 meters long, would be brought to the bridge, which is around 90 meters high, by helicopter. Despite the demanding work in alpine terrain, there have hardly been any complications so far, said Oehme. Once a drill head “gave up the ghost” on the rock, but this could be compensated for by bringing other work forward.
Static problems were discovered in February 2021 on the Marienbrücke in Schwangau (Ostallgäu district), which is particularly popular with tourists because of the view of Neuschwanstein Castle. Since then the bridge has been closed. The extensive refurbishment, which the Ministry of Finance estimates could cost almost 600,000 euros, did not begin until mid-May. The Marienbrücke was built by Bavaria’s King Maximilian II in the 1850s as a wooden pontoon for his wife Marie. His son King Ludwig II replaced this with an iron construction. In 1978 the bridge had to be rebuilt.