Cologne Rodenkirchen Bridge

50.8997888888896.9904611111111Koordinaten: 50 ° 53 ' 59.2 "N, 6 ° 59' 25.7 " E

F1

Federal Highway 4

Rhine

The Rhine Bridge CologneRodenkirchen is a 567 meter long suspension bridge connecting spans at Roden churches as part of the federal highway 4 the Rhine and the left - and right-bank sections of the Cologne motorway ring.

Special features are the monumental gate situation at the stone bridge head, slimming the horizontal stiffening girders, tension between the institutions and the framing it portal-like pylons.

Planning and construction

It was built in 1938-1941 after a design by Paul Bonatz and planning by Fritz Leonhardt for the Cologne -Aachen highway and was taken in October 1941 under the name of Adolf Hitler bridge in operation.

The bridge was destroyed by an air raid on 14 January 1945.

From 1952 to 1954 was rebuilt, with the old pylons could be used again. The newly designed superstructure consisted of only 3350 tons of steel, as opposed to the first bridge with 6100 tons.

Due to the increased traffic levels it was in 1990 widened by a twin building with a common central pillar on the north side, the completion was about 1995. Enlargement is evident from the fact that the bridge elements are not riveted on the northern side, but were welded. The same phenomenon is also evident in the way later supplemented third ( northern ) bridge section of Cologne Hohenzollern Bridge.

Construction

The Rodenkirchener Rhine bridge is a real erdverankerte cable suspension bridge and was at that time the most expansive suspension bridge in Europe. The center span is 378 m, giving a total span of 567 m, together with the two side spans of 94.5 m.

The first bridge from 1938 was carried out with two carriageways, each 7.50 m wide, in the middle of a cycle path of 2.80 m and two outer walkways of each 2.40 m. Required time were 12,500 tons of steel.

Since the last renovation in 1990, there are three driving and an emergency lane in each direction roadway. The bridge width between the railings is 52.3 m.

The steel pylons with the maximum outside dimensions of 3.6 meters x 4.5 meters with a height of 59.4 meters and a center distance of 26.4 meters. Established are three pylons on a 20 meter high, 12 to 18 meters wide and 78 meters long river piers of concrete.

The suspension cable from 1954 have a diameter of about 50 cm and are composed of 61 individual parts. The cable slack between pylon and bridge center is 42 meters. The hanger cables have a diameter of 5.4 cm and located at a distance of 10.5 meters. The anchoring of the Kabelzugkräfte of 60 MN occurs in the abutments, which are designed as ballast box-like body with a maximum height of 26 meters, 50 meters wide and 64 meters long.

The 3.3 -meter-high superstructure is a pure steel structure, consisting of a lightweight steel road and a support grid with 3.3 meters high and 1.65 meters high stiffening beams cross members. To drain the deck a cross slope of 2.5 % towards upstream is available for both directions of travel on the top.

Until conversion, the bridge had a 19 cm thick reinforced concrete deck slab. By replacing with the lightweight steel road, the loads increased at the bridge twice as wide by only 50 %, and the existing two supporting cables and the arrangement of a new third- sufficient. The bridge has since been the only suspension bridge in which the load is evenly distributed on three supporting cables. The uniform load distribution has been reached with the help of the stiffness of the cross member, the compliance of the suspension cable as well as by subsequent tightening of the new suspension cable.

Due to the large span and bridge width of a traffic load special scheme has been reduced by the Federal Ministry of Transport, the be applied in accordance with the provisions of traffic load using. Thus, the existing reinforcing carrier sufficed even further use.