After a large-scale evacuation, the Salzbachtal Bridge will be blown up today. Here is the most important information about the time and how you can watch live from a safe distance.
Now things should go very quickly with the Salzbachtal Bridge in Wiesbaden, which has been in disrepair for years: the blasting of the 310 meter long and around 30 meter high motorway bridge along the A66 is planned for today at 12 noon.
On-site spectators are not allowed for safety reasons, the area around the bridge is cordoned off over a large area. You can watch the bridge burst here in the live stream.
According to the police, drones with cameras are used, among other things. From home, everyone would have a good and safe view of the spectacle. The police want to crack down on onlookers who try anyway on site. It is said that anyone who comes by car and causes traffic jams must expect penalties.
Whether this danger area is actually deserted is carefully checked on Saturday morning before the blast. Ulrich Neuroth from the responsible Autobahn GmbH said that the federal police would fly over the area in a helicopter. In addition, a drone with a thermal imaging camera will be used, says Neuroth. “When a fellow citizen comes up with the idea of wanting to see the whole thing up close, all I can say is: people, don’t be tired of life.”
This is how the blasting of the Salzbachtal Bridge works
220 kilograms of explosives are used by demolition master Eduard Reisch and his team for the demolition of the 1963 bridge in Wiesbaden-Biebrich. First the southern part of the bridge is to be blown up around 12 p.m. and the northern part of the bridge a few seconds later.
Explosive wires and detonators are attached to a pillar of the dilapidated Salzbachtal bridge in Wiesbaden.
SWR
140 residents have to leave their homes for the demolition. Parts of the nearby animal shelter are also being evacuated. The dogs that are housed there have been brought to a boarding house at Frankfurt Airport. The outdoor enclosures are covered to protect them from dust and the roller shutters of the dog houses are closed.
Five railway tracks running under the bridge had to be dismantled. The Wiesbaden sewage treatment plant must also be secured against falling concrete parts. Around 50,000 cubic meters of sand and earth are needed to protect the infrastructure under the bridge from the impact of the debris.
In Wiesbaden, preparations are under way to blow up the ailing motorway bridge on the A66, the so-called Salzbachtalbrücke. The most important man is the demolition manager Eduard Reisch.
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Big traffic chaos feared
Andreas Kowol, head of the transport department City of Wiesbaden, expects significant traffic obstructions during the preparation for the demolition on Saturday morning and especially afterwards. It is true that the rail line under the dilapidated bridge has not been passable for almost five months, “but even the stations that have started replacement traffic for this line are likely to be very difficult to reach.” In addition, Kowol continues, there are even fewer opportunities for car traffic. “There will be many problems with traffic in Wiesbaden city center and the districts of Biebrich, Schierstein and Erbenheim.”
Work continues immediately after the blast
With the demolition of the bridge, however, the major construction site in the Biebrich district will not be history for some time – the bridge is to be rebuilt by 2023. According to Autobahn GmbH West, the follow-up work should begin on Saturday afternoon when 15 excavators prepare the 15,000-ton rubble for removal.
The gradual demolition began in 2017, the planned new building should actually be completely finished by 2022. However, due to delays, this date was initially postponed to 2026. However, traffic continued until some time ago. In June 2021, however, the bridge was closed after concrete parts fell onto the federal highway 263 below.
The fact that the Salzbachtal Bridge was closed before it could have collapsed also has something to do with Wulf Goretzky and his friend Daniel. Here the student from Wiesbaden talks about it.
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Blocking of federal highway 263 and cancellations of trains
The federal road and the railway tracks running there were also closed. All of this had a major impact on city traffic in Wiesbaden. A so-called bypass was set up on the B263. Since June hardly any trains have stopped or run at Wiesbaden Central Station. However, the traffic collapse feared by many sides did not materialize. If everything goes according to plan, the train tracks could be opened again before Christmas.
According to the Autobahn GmbH, the reason for the falling off of the concrete parts was a component that collapsed on a pillar of the south bridge in the direction of Frankfurt am Main. This lowered the superstructure by around 30 centimeters. The pillar shifted and then showed cracks.
The blasting of the Salzbachtal bridge has already been postponed
There was no visible damage to the north bridge, over which traffic was still running at the time. 90,000 cars drove over the bridge every day before the closure. A date for the demolition had actually been planned for August. Due to the extensive preparation, however, it was pushed back.
The bridge had to be additionally stabilized so that the blasting of the bridge did not cause even more damage. In addition, a new special truck had to be salvaged, which could no longer be driven off the bridge due to the sudden closure.