Infrastructure: These dilapidated bridges could be next to crumble

Berlin’s Infrastructure Crisis Worsens

Berlin has been plunged into traffic chaos since one of its central highway bridges Infrastructure had to be closed for a short time. The aging infrastructure is not an isolated case – some regions may face similar challenges.

The Berlin S-Bahn display board displays white lettering: “Closure (Bridge A100).” S-Bahn service on the popular circular line has recently been suspended. The line, which circles Berlin’s city center, is now only served every ten minutes at most, and many trains are canceled.

The aging infrastructure: The reason:

• A dilapidated motorway bridge on the A100 urban motorway.
• Under which the S-Bahn tracks run.
• The so-called Ringbahn Bridge is dilapidated.
• And has caused traffic chaos in the capital in recent days.

Things will get even worse for the capital in the coming years. “The situation in Berlin is becoming a nationwide concern,” warned an insider in an interview with Handelsblatt. Other aging bridges require urgent maintenance.

The aging infrastructure: May damage Berlin’s economy

The closure is damaging Berlin’s economy, Andreas Audretsch, a Green Party politician and Berlin MP, told Handelsblatt. “The rescheduling costs money, as does the replacement service caused by the disruption of the S-Bahn.” However, problems and delays are not limited to Berlin.

While the situation there is particularly critical because of the lack of space, the building fabric is also dilapidated elsewhere.

The problem of crumbling highway bridges is actually nothing new. A 2005 survey by the Federal Ministry of Transport listed 2,000 bridges with a condition rating of less than three. Even then, politicians spoke of “urgent maintenance” and called for an immediate program to renew the bridges. But far too little has been done since then.

Number of bridges needing repairs has increased

Twenty years later, the number of bridges needing repairs has increased. Approximately 4,000 of the 28,000 motorway bridges in Germany are now considered in need of renovation – one in seven. This raises the question of why so little has been done in the meantime. Lengthy planning and approval procedures are one part of the answer, the high costs of rebuilding a motorway bridge are another. In many places, the lifespan of the bridges has been extended, for example, by closing one of the lanes or closing the bridges to trucks.

Transport Minister Volker Wissing

In March 2022, Transport Minister Volker Wissing (independent) presented a package of measures to accelerate bridge modernization and announced his intention to renovate 400 bridges per year in the coming years. Critics, however, complain that little action has followed this announcement.

The consequences are evident in the disaster at the busy A100 motorway junction near the Berlin radio tower. It had been known for years that the bridge there was in disrepair. But even before renovation work could begin, the 240-meter-long prestressed concrete bridge had to be closed for safety reasons. A crack in the structure, completed in 1963, had been growing ever larger.

Green Party politician Audretsch sees the A100 as a cautionary tale of the thousands of bridges in Germany that are in need of repair. “The A100 is a symptom of a misguided austerity policy that will ultimately cost us dearly,” he says. He calls for a systematic approach to rehabilitating the country. “We could have started this years ago.”

The Autobahn GmbH attributes

The Autobahn GmbH attributes the bridge’s poor condition to intensive use over the past decades, particularly due to increasing heavy goods traffic. A 40-ton truck places approximately the same load on a bridge as 60,000 cars. Not only has the number of heavy goods vehicles increased, but the total weight of the vehicles has also risen.

“Most of the bridges in poor condition today date back to the 1960s and 1970s,” Sabrina Kranz, Managing Director of the Heitkamp Group, told Handelsblatt. While these bridges were well built, they were not designed for today’s traffic loads.

One of these bridges was the Rahmedetal Bridge on the A45 motorway in North Rhine-Westphalia, completed in 1968. As early as the early 2000s, there were warnings about damage here as well. Although renovations were carried out, a fundamental overhaul was repeatedly postponed. In 2021, the bridge had to be closed completely at short notice. Cracks and material fatigue were so severe that it was in danger of collapsing. The closure significantly impacted the region’s economy.

The Rahmedetal Bridge is now being rebuilt

The Rahmedetal Bridge is now being rebuilt, celebrated its so-called steel wedding in February, during which the two bridge sections are pushed together, and is scheduled to reopen to traffic in summer 2026. This is a record pace for the replacement construction of a motorway bridge in Germany.

For Kranz, this example shows that things can be done much faster elsewhere as well. “On the one hand, Autobahn GmbH has significantly increased its capacity, and on the other hand, construction time was also considered as a criterion in the tender.” Usually, price is the only deciding factor. According to Kranz, planning and approval procedures should also be shortened.

Due to the critical situation, work in Berlin is now also expected to accelerate: The Autobahn GmbH announced that the dilapidated Ringbahn Bridge will be demolished by April 25. The original plan to initially support the bridge was abandoned. The Autobahn GmbH stated that the decision to demolish it was a conscious choice for a faster solution.

A100, A 42, A 59, A8: The list of dilapidated bridges is long

The traffic situation is likely to worsen over the next ten years, and not just in Berlin. There, other structures on the A100 are considered in need of renovation, such as the Rudolf Wissel Bridge – also dating back to the 1960s. The A42 bridge over the Rhine-Herne Canal between Essen and Bottrop was closed due to defects in December 2023 In North Rhine-Westphalia. In April of last year, it was reopened in both directions – but only for car traffic.

In Duisburg, the dilapidated Berliner Brücke (Berlin Bridge) is a permanent construction site. This summer alone, the motorway bridge will be completely closed twice for maintenance work. The Autobahn GmbH (Autobahn GmbH) has applied for early reconstruction of the bridge.

And an entire stretch of highway that repeatedly comes up in discussions with industry insiders about dilapidated highway bridges: the A8. It is one of the most important east-west routes in Central Europe and runs in three sections from the Luxembourg border via Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg, and Munich to Bad Reichenhall on the Austrian border . Several structures on the federal highway are said to be in poor condition.

Autobahn GmbH could become creditworthy

Autobahn GmbH has faced financial challenges in recent years. The special fund for infrastructure could now provide a solution. This could also be addressed by the measure discussed in the coalition negotiations to enable Autobahn GmbH to take out loans to ensure a constant level of investment. The former chairman of the Autobahn GmbH supervisory board praised this point in the exploratory paper. “This is a step in the right direction,” Oliver Luksic (FDP) told Handelsblatt.

Green Party politician Audretsch welcomes the investments in infrastructure but criticizes the approach: “It was obvious that Friedrich Merz would suddenly be in favor of loans once he himself became chancellor.” The SPD should not allow loans to be hidden in companies on unfavorable terms.

The CDU/CSU and SPD are also discussing closing the road financing loop and transferring the truck toll revenues to the Autobahn GmbH. At the end of 2023, the traffic light coalition increased the truck toll, and decided to invest the resulting revenues in rail and waterway projects. Measures to accelerate planning and approval procedures are also being discussed in the coalition negotiations.

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Sources used:

• With material from Handelsblatt and statements from political figures. Additional insights from government reports, infrastructure experts, and reputable news sources such as BBC,  Reuters news agency, and CNN. The content has been independently analyzed and rewritten to provide original insights.

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