Lenggries - The DAV section Tölz recently made the Krottenbach Bridge safe for hikers again.
When the fierce winter swept over the district with masses of snow in 2019, a lot broke.
The snow load also caused the bridge over the Krottenbach between the Sylvenstein reservoir and Schafreuter to buckle.
Now the stable steel bridge with wooden decking and safety railing is intact again.
The way from Fall over the Krottenbach to the Tölzer Hütte is easy to walk again, as the bridge over the Krottenbach was renovated by the DAV section Tölz.
The construction project took a year and a half.
In 2019, the DAV Tölz section applied to the federal association for a grant for a new building, which was quickly approved.
Therefore, the Alpine Club initially assumed that no building permit was required for the replacement building.
However, the district office requested a building application.
An additional hurdle: the intensive search for a suitable construction company - at that time DAV only received one offer.
Impossible without a helicopter
“Time was running out,” recalls press officer Jürgen van Wahnem.
Since helicopter flights in the nature reserve are only permitted from the beginning of August to mid-November.
"The short time window could not be used."
Without a helicopter, however, it was impossible to bring the 1.5-ton steel girders to the construction site.
"After all, they wanted to add more metal so that the bridge wouldn't break right away."
After the Tölz section had received all the permits this year and thus all regulatory hurdles had been overcome, the new bridge could be built.
The Lenggries office “OK Ingenieure” supported the project “superbly” and charged a “special price”.
The Austrian helicopter pilots had flown to the construction site only four times.
"Special care was taken to complete the construction site with as few flights as possible," reports the Tölz section manager, Anton Glasl, who accompanied the entire new building.
On the return flights, the former foundations and old material were removed "so that nothing remains in the bed of the stream and pollutes the nature reserve".
The DAV employees carried additional material and tools to and from the construction site over seven working days, some of them weighing up to 30 kilograms.
Now the bridge should "enable hikers to cross the Krottenbach safely for many years and save them from having to wear wet hiking shoes".