The only crossing-free crossing of the railway line in Oberschleißheim closed to cars for three years! At the start of the construction work on the railway bridge on Mittenheimer Straße, traffic collapse seemed to be programmed. Work has now been under full closure for 16 months and the place has come to terms with it largely without making a sound. “Meanwhile everyone has gotten used to it,” says Mayor Markus Böck (CSU).
A routine check of the bridge, which opened in 1972, revealed that the chloride content in the concrete exceeded the permissible limit values in some cases, which can trigger chemical processes that in turn can lead to concrete parts spalling and thus to long-term impairment of the statics. The steel frame in the concrete pillars of the retaining walls was already damaged. The concrete surfaces showed severe spalling and cavities. And the joints of the structure were mostly defective.
When planning the general renovation, a construction period up to August 2023 was initially assumed. Now, behind closed doors, there are even attempts to be able to open traffic this year. The main reason for this rapid pace was the unusually mild winter. Instead of a cold break of several weeks, the construction workers just put in the Christmas holidays and otherwise worked through the day.
This construction progress, which was never expected, then led to the only complication of the project so far. Time windows had already been agreed with the railways in which work on the bridge was to be carried out, which could possibly become critical for the rail traffic running beneath it; because the construction process was pushed forward, these windows also had to be rescheduled, which was at least not entirely uncomplicated.
The biggest problem was the loss of the Park and Ride facility
The biggest problems were caused by the construction work on the alternative parking lot. Because the park-and-ride area under the bridge is being used as a warehouse for the construction work, the town hall has approved the nearby car park at the community center as a replacement. As a result, visitors to the events and the gastronomy in the community center could no longer park their cars there. As a result, the municipality again limited the parking time on half of the area, and now it seems to fit. He had “not received any complaints for a long time,” says the mayor.
The repair work on the west side of the Mittenheimer Bridge is now largely complete, the caps with the sidewalk on the edge and the new road surface are finished. Now work is being done on the east side. The renewal of the reinforced concrete caps as the edges of the bridge and the reinforced concrete cornices on the retaining walls is currently underway. The protection against accidental contact is dismantled on the underside of the bridge and the cap structure is mounted. The old asphalt will be milled off in the roadway area, then bridge drains will be installed and the roadway waterproofing will be renewed before the new surface is laid here as well.
While nothing will change in terms of traffic routing through the municipality after completion, the town hall is negotiating with the district office about a possible tonnage restriction. That could help keep truck traffic out of town. Technically, the bridge will of course be renovated in such a way that no restrictions would be necessary.