Theodor Heuss Bridge (Düsseldorf)

51.2469444444446.7597222222222Koordinaten: 51 ° 14 ' 49 "N, 6 ° 45' 35" E

BWf1

Federal Highway 7

Rhine

The Theodor Heuss Bridge is one of the seven Düsseldorf Rhine bridges, of which six are the road and a railway transport. It was officially at its opening in 1957 and is still colloquially called North Bridge. It is considered the first cable-stayed bridge in Germany and together with the Oberkasseler Bridge and the Rheinkniebrücke the original " Düsseldorf bridge family " that has influenced world instrumental for many years the development of this bridge type.

The bridge was named after the former German Federal President Theodor Heuss.

Location

The Theodor Heuss Bridge connects the district of Düsseldorf Golzheim and the north of the city with low- Kassel and the west of the city nearby suburbs. About it the federal highway 7, the inner-city connects the right bank section of the A52 motorway from Essen and the Ruhr area to Dusseldorf with the left-bank section of Dusseldorf Kaarst, Mönchengladbach and the Lower Rhine region runs.

Since the opening of the airport bridge in May 2002, the traffic on the bridge has eased; before the bridge was suffering from a heavy traffic with 100,000 vehicles each day and was often a ' bottleneck '.

Description

The actual cable-stayed bridge is 476 m long. At it joins the right bank of a 333 m long high road over the Cecilienallee / Rotterdam street and the Kaiserswertherstrasse. On the left of the Rhine it is complemented by a 462 m long approach bridge over the flood plain, which still crosses after Niederkasseler dike the Kaiser- Friedrich-Ring and then terminates at an artificial ramp. The main port on the Rhine has a span of 260 m, the two side spans of 108 m.

The bridge has two lanes in each direction and parallel to it. Depending on the outsides of a foot and cycle path The bridge deck is including the railings 27,10 m wide. Of this, 15 m to the four lanes and their average separation ramp. On a 1.75 m wide strip on both sides of the road are the pylons that anchor the ropes and lighting masts. This will be followed at 4.05 m wide strips for the walking and biking trails. The steel bridge deck is an orthotropic plate designed with cantilevered footpaths and cycle paths in the shade of the 3.30 m high main beams are to act as slim as possible.

A pylon is directly on the right bank at the outer edge of the curve described by the Rhine, the other pylon stands in front of the left bank in shallow water inside of the curve. Both pylons are made below the bridge decks of massive concrete piers that occupy almost its entire width. Above the bridge deck, they consist of two slim, 44 m high, slightly tapering upward, free-standing stems without reinforcement by cross bars. From this stems from riveted steel plates are clamped to the bridge deck in both directions of three parallel steel cables.

History

1952 commissioned by the Düsseldorf City Planning Office under the direction of architect Friedrich Tamms a group led by civil engineer and structural engineer Fritz Leonhardt and the draft North Bridge. Inspired by Franz Dischinger 1949 published treatises, Leonhardt established draft a cable-stayed bridge with pylons in the usual frame shape and tufts attached to the top ropes. Tamms found the Pylon framework too cumbersome at the low wind loads would have detached, slender stems suffice. In an oblique view of the bridge, the tufts arranged ropes parallel arrangement of the ropes, which may not overlap visually would overlap with a very special way, and therefore demanded Tamms a fan-shaped.

Leonhardt revised his design in the form requested by Tamms. On 8 October 1953, the city decided to adopt this design. On its basis, the construction work was tendered and awarded. On 19 December 1957, built by Hein Lehmann AG bridge was opened to traffic. It corresponded to Tamms ideas down to a little thing: the responsible for street lighting Office had set up the usual curved whip poles, while Tamm had just provided masts, which should be in line with the vertical pylons. Tamms avoided to ask for a replacement of the pylons.