Leverkusen Rhine Bridge - First section of 4000 dilapidated bridges completed

It feels like it took forever, but now the new Rhine bridge on the A1 near Leverkusen is finally open to truck traffic again. After twelve years! At least the first construction phase has been completed, but the structure, which costs around one billion euros, will only be completely finished with the completion of a second bridge. This is expected to happen in 2027 . Autobahn GmbH celebrates the opening of the A1 between Leverkusen and Cologne as an “important day for the Rhineland, and even for the Federal Republic of Germany”. The Rhine bridge in Leverkusen was a symbol that things are getting difficult with the bridges in Germany and that the bridges need to be modernized. It was actually the first time that a bridge of this size had taken on such a structural dimension there. But it is also now a symbol that things are moving forward. The bridges we are talking about right now are bridges that all came into being at the same time . And now they are all due for modernization at the same time. It has to be said that this problem will continue to concern us for quite some time. No wonder, because cracks in the structure had led to this section of the motorway being closed to vehicles over 3.5 tons for a whole decade, repeatedly triggering a massive traffic collapse in the Rhineland. Basically, it was also the Leverkusen Bridge whose dilapidated condition led to a discussion across Germany about the worrying transport infrastructure. The motorway bridge has exposed gaping wounds and represents the beginning of a huge renovation offensive. If we want to have 4,000 bridges either modernized or newly built by 2032. We now have a thousand bridges in progress, either in planning, under construction or completed. But we still have to step on the accelerator, which is why we have also passed an approval acceleration law so that we can plan more quickly. So we have to build up planning supplies. Not enough has been done in recent years, but now we are moving forward at pace. And so they all came to Leverkusen to open the new building. Accompanied by a lot of police, because residents had repeatedly called for a tunnel and even organized a counter-demonstration. At the head of the political celebrities was North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, but also well-known politicians such as Karl Lauterbach, who of course could not be missing as Federal Health Minister and Leverkusen member of the Bundestag . Clearly, the completion of the first section of the bridge is cause for celebration. Actually, you could give the speech in five words. Finally the thing is finished! North Rhine-Westphalia is the European transport hub. At least in Germany, the part of the transport infrastructure that is subject to maximum load. It is therefore clear: wherever restrictions are imposed, they have far-reaching consequences and lead to many, many problems. Where could you understand this better than here in the region. The year-long partial closure of the Leverkusen Bridge was also an enormous burden for the people of Leverkusen, commuters, and the entire economy. The release of the new Rhine bridge was also symbolic. Very classic with scissors and ribbon in the German colors. By the way, the original bridge dates back to the 1960s and was designed for 40,000 vehicles per day. There is no comparison to the new bridge, which should now be able to handle 150,000 vehicles. There are 14,000 trucks every day. There were diversion routes via Düsseldorf-Flehe or in the south of Cologne via the Rodenkirchen Bridge. That means you had to take a huge detour to get to the A4 and that's definitely history for now. Then the first truck drives over the bridge and a little later, very slowly and carefully, the first drivers who dare. Because the bridge is not completely finished yet, initially at reduced speed. So 80 km/h instead of the previous 40 km/h, although the speed traps in the construction site have been fined in recent years grossed a whopping 23 million euros. While we're on the subject of money: What does such a perpetual construction site in front of the front door actually mean for a shipping company that has had to adjust its scheduling to the permanent congestion for many years? We are visiting the Cargo Dünner company in Leverkusen. The company has 27 trucks and had to stand idly by as a permanent construction site turned the entire operational process upside down. So, if you look at it that way, the drivers always had to take detours and were stuck in traffic jams. That ended up taking two hours a day. If you then simply calculate this in terms of pure working time, etc., it comes to 70, 80 euros per truck, per day. This adds up very quickly. We currently have 27 vehicles. If you extrapolate that, it's just under 2,000 euros per month. And that would only be one truck per day. And of course these are additional financial burdens that the company has to bear, since there is no corresponding sales. Not to be forgotten is the competitive disadvantage that the new bridge construction had for the majority of freight forwarding companies in the Cologne/Leverkusen area and the lack of connection to European traffic flows for years. It is impossible to quantify the exact damage to the industry. But we'll try it once and have asked the NRW Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association. So, in addition to the additional costs per month that the vehicles had, the traffic jams and the loss of time and the environmental pollution in the endless traffic jams of the last ten or twelve years must also be taken into account. This will not change in the future, because the second part of the bridge is being built now. The Leverkusen Cross will then be completely rebuilt. So for the next ten or 20 years, this area will be a construction site and a burden for European freight traffic. The completion of a single bridge moves into the public eye for a few days. The mishaps that accompanied the construction have been forgotten. For example, due to defective steel from China, the delivery of which abruptly stopped the construction of the Leverkusen Bridge in April 2020 and caused considerable delays. Time for a conclusion. When a bridge is finally completed after such a long time, it is certainly a reason to be happy. But there's no reason to celebrate either: the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge, and it's not completely finished yet, is only one of around 1,000 motorway bridges in Germany that are considered in need of renovation. Many of them are not top priority, but the overall desolate situation still reveals the extent to which the renovation backlog from past legislative periods has grown. It is transport policy failure in the past! It will take decades until everything is back to the point where it runs the way a modern transport infrastructure requires. Decades of waiting for the transport industry and decades of disruption for everyone who needs functioning roads. You can find out more about the effects of the renovation backlog in an upcoming issue of eurotransportTV.