Germany: Bridges are even more ailing than feared

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Closed Rahmede viaduct: "According to initial calculations, at least a doubling of the current approx. 200 to approx. 400 motorway bridges per year can be assumed"

Photo: Rene Traut / imago images / Rene Traut

The closure of the Rahmede viaduct symbolizes how dramatic the state of the German motorway network is.

Thousands of cars and trucks have had to be diverted since the beginning of December.

This not only plunges the communities along the A45 into chaos, but also affects freight traffic between the important industrial centers of the eastern Ruhr area and the Rhine-Main area.

Since this week it has been clear: The building from 1968 will never be driven on again.

It has to be demolished and rebuilt.

So the chaos will be permanent for years.

And: Rahmede is apparently everywhere.

That is the result of an internal investigation by the state-owned motorway company on the 28,000 bridges nationwide that SPIEGEL has received.

Central statement: "If the necessary maintenance measures on the thousands of structures are not implemented to the required extent and in a timely manner, there will be considerable traffic restrictions in the coming years, including bridges being closed."

More than twice as many bridges need to be rehabilitated each year

But it is »foreseeable« that many bridges built before 1985 will have to be renewed in the medium term, in other words: will have to be rebuilt. "According to initial calculations, we can expect at least a doubling of the current 200 to around 400 motorway bridges per year," predicts the motorway company, which not only demands more money from the federal government, but also new laws so that the renovation can finally get going.

Since the beginning of last year, Autobahn GmbH, based in Berlin, has been planning the maintenance, financing and construction of highways centrally for all federal states.

A task that up until now the federal states and their road maintenance departments have been responsible for on behalf of the federal government.

There were many warnings about the poor condition of the bridges.

But the damage analysis that managing director Stephan Krenz commissioned shortly after he took up his duties revealed an even worse picture.

In addition to the previously known cases, the Leverkusener Rheinbrücke (A1), the Salzbachtalbrücke in Wiesbaden (A66) and the Rahmede valley bridge (A45), "considerable traffic restrictions with far-reaching regional and supra-regional effects" cannot be ruled out confidential letter.

The findings of the Autobahn GmbH should also cause a stir at the meeting of the Transport Committee this Wednesday.

There, the topic of bridges is on the agenda at the request of the CDU opposition.

What is causing considerable unrest in Berlin is the insight that for years the true condition of the bridge structures has been presented far too rosily by the responsible state authorities.

"Those responsible wanted to postpone renovations in the coming legislative periods," says a familiar with the matter in the capital.

Because construction sites cause traffic jams and frustration among the car-driving electorate.

Federal states have shirked

That was also the case with the Rahmede viaduct: the pavement was renovated a few years ago, but you didn't want to look very closely into the concrete structure.

The massive damage was not noticed until the autobahn company analyzed it.

In the state capital Düsseldorf, they don't really want to talk about it.

The transport minister was called Hendrik Wüst in the last few years.

The CDU politician is now Prime Minister of the country.

North Rhine-Westphalia probably has the biggest problem with ailing infrastructure.

This is not only due to the fact that a particularly large number of roads have been built there since the times of the economic boom.

There is also a lot of heavy traffic on the Rhine and Ruhr.

It has increased and the load on the axles has increased.

This fact has been ignored for many years.

The most populous federal state is not alone with its strategy of avoiding lengthy renovations.

The Autobahn company is also surprised by the results from Hessen.

The so-called Rhön line is likely to cause considerable trouble in the coming years.

This is the A7 motorway, which, like the Sauerland line, spans many low mountain range valleys.

In the coming days, motorway chief Krenz is to personally examine the structures in Bremen.

Here, too, his people identify an urgent need for action.

Krenz has established its own bridge task force in the company.

Another problem for the transport minister

The new Federal Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing (FDP), has one more pressing problem on his desk. On Monday he frantically instructed Krenz to "make all the necessary resources and means available" to rebuild the Rahmede valley bridge as quickly as possible. This requires fresh budget money for the motorway company. Last year gave an outlook on the costs that will be incurred: the federal company spent 150 million euros for planning and 600 million euros in investments in 2021 for the 200 bridges to be renovated. But that's not enough.

A redesign of the planning and construction industry, including legal changes, is required so that the renovation backlog can be overcome.

So it is in the internal paper of the state enterprise.

After the analysis, the particularly ailing bridges must now be prioritized.

The aim is to »examine whether the high investments required to increase the load-bearing capacity and durability for a limited remaining useful life are still economically viable for existing structures, or whether a new replacement is the better solution,« write the motorway builders.

A new law aims to speed up planning

In the short term, "a re-prioritization of requirement plan projects for the critical existing bridges is necessary," it continues. At this point the legislature should also come into play. He must help speed up the approval process for critical bridges. To this end, the motorway company proposes a "law of measures".

It not only lists the identified bridges that are to come first.

With the set of rules behind them, "land purchase processes that were brought forward could be initiated and building permits obtained from private property owners".

"Denmark has experience with measures laws, where these have been successfully applied for a long time," write those responsible at the motorway company: "The times for the planning approval phase, i.e. the decision in parliament, are reduced to a few months there."

The Rahmede viaduct could become the first test case for the effectiveness of such a law.

After all, the governing parties have included this issue in their coalition agreement, note the motorway planners with relief.