Cologne Beltway

Template: Infobox several high-level roads / maintenance / DE -A

State:

• North Rhine -Westphalia

• In construction
• In planning

The Cologne motorway ring - also called short Cologne Ring - is clockwise from the city of Cologne, which annularly surrounds motorway sections of A 3, A 4 and A 1 between the motorway junction Leverkusen, the Heumarer triangle and the motorway junction Köln- West in a length of 51.8 km. The ring is a key transition point between these three motorways with heavy traffic and therefore has also to cope with the so fed long-distance transport in addition to local traffic flows. Therefore he is one of the most highly loaded and stauanfälligsten sections of motorway in Germany.

The Cologne Ring crosses the motorway A559 at Köln- Gremberg, the A 555 of Bonn at the motorway junction Köln-Süd and the A 57 ( Krefeld -Cologne- Ehrenfeld ) at the motorway junction Köln- Nord. The A 59 is connected from the direction of Dusseldorf at the motorway junction Leverkusen-West and from Bonn Heumarer triangle at the Cologne Ring.

The beltway is the outermost of the Kölner Straße rings. It runs with the exception of 6 km to the northeast completely on the city of Cologne. More Cologne rings - from outside to inside - the military ring, the belt, the interior canal street and the rings.

History

The Cologne Ring originated from Leverkusen clockwise. 1936, the section between Leverkusen and Cologne -Mülheim was completed as part of the highway Oberhausen- Wiesbaden, 1937, the section to Siegburg. Thus, the present-day east ring was already passable. In 1941 the construction of the bridge over the Rhine Roden churches so that the connection of the A 3 motorway to the west of the Rhine Cologne -Bonn (now the A555 ) was completed and produced.

In 1957 to 1960, the highway was Cologne - Aachen completed, the section of the Köln- Süd for later Köln-West was from 1958. 1961 began in the north of Cologne, the construction of the second motorway bridge over the Rhine. With the completion of the north-west ring 1965, the Cologne Ring can be used in its entire length.

1971 A 1 has been extended over the Köln-West out towards the south and 1974 A 4 connected to the junction Köln- Ost from the east on the A 3. Since then, the section between junction Köln-Ost and Heumar consists of two motorways, the A3 ( east ring ) and A 4 ( South Ring ).

Today's state

The traffic load on the Cologne motorway ring has increased steadily since the 1960s. Structurally proposed enhancements to six lanes ( without a hard shoulder ) were implemented everywhere, but soon proved to be no longer sufficient to cope with the traffic load of today places more than 160,000 vehicles daily.

In the wake of the South Ring was in the 1990s, expanded to six lanes and the bridge over the Rhine Rodenkirchen be supplemented by a second, identical bridge. In this case, a new connection point for the container station Köln - Eifeltor arose. The motorway junction Köln -West was until 2003 a major upgrade. The previous leaf clover shape has been slimmed down by creation of additional connecting curves.

The section Kreuz Köln -Ost - Heumar the A 3 / A 4 was dated 12 October 2003 ( first sod ) until December 6, 2005 ( to traffic ) developed the first portion of the highway in North Rhine -Westphalia to four lanes in each direction. The eight-lane expansion between the junction Köln-Ost and Cologne - Dellbrueck took place until August 2008. The section between Cologne - Dellbrueck and Cologne Mülheim is passable with a total of eight lanes since the completion on 19 July 2012. The eight-lane expansion between Cologne -Mülheim and AS Leverkusen plan is established since the end of January 2012. The expansion will take place from 2014. The A3 will then be expanded in the future achtstreifig between junction Leverkusen and Heumarer triangle. The other eight-lane expansion between the exit Leverkusen and the motorway junction Leverkusen is in the planning stage; as well as the remodeling of the Cross Leverkusen itself

The section between the junction Köln - Nord and the Leverkusen motorway junction is expanded six lanes. A renovation of the bridge over the Rhine Leverkusen did not seem sensible, so that a replacement was being considered by new construction to 2025. On November 30, 2012, suddenly found that the motorway bridge over the Rhine is so dilapidated at Leverkusen that immediate closure for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes was required. This led to traffic chaos in and around Cologne. After a temporary repair until March 2013, the bridge closure could be lifted; the bridge is but further under constant observation. The proposed replacement bridge is therefore earlier than previously planned, namely, built no later than 2020. The new bridge should already designed for a achtstreifigen operating according to the original plan, but are operated first six lanes. But after the planners go out to 2025 from a traffic burden on the A 1 by 25 %, the new bridge now (April 2013) to be expanded to 10 tracks. Alternatively, a tunnel under the River Rhine is already brought into the conversation, as the widening or local installation of the new bridge, inter alia, could run into underground problems of an old landfill on the Leverkusen area. Also, the section of the Rhine bridge to the Cross Leverkusen on the A1 and A3 in the area of the motorway junction Leverkusen are now restructuring and / or in need of expansion.

The six-lane extension of the A 1 motorway junctions between Cologne and Cologne North -West is under construction since February 2007. The highway between the Köln-West and the railway bridge, the route Cologne -Aachen is covered for noise abatement reasons. The "housing Lövenich " is enabled on all 6 tracks since 21 December, 2012. Remaining work will be done by mid-2013. The three-lane expansion between the AS -Bocklemünd Cologne and Köln- Nord ( mainly by cultivation of emergency lanes on both sides and adaptation of existing or new crossing structures ) is to take place from 2013. Also, the Köln-West is currently being rebuilt.

As part of the preparations for the 2006 World Cup, the A 3 was equipped with a dynamic traffic control system that manages the flow of traffic passing in traffic case on diversion routes such as the B 8 at the jam. This is since May 10, 2006 in continuous operation. It is planned to install similar systems at various other locations of the ring road and to integrate into the overall system.

Traffic

With a traffic volume of 360,000 vehicles daily, including 15 % trucks, was in 2012 the Cologne motorway ring road of the busiest motorways in Europe. This led to 28 traffic accidents on the highways around Cologne daily.

Planning

"Second Ring"

Mid-1970s it considered not to expand the already highly stressed then ring on six to eight tracks, but instead to build another motorway ring around Cologne together with existing highways. Of which promised to be a relief of the Cologne ring by the long-distance transport. In addition, we saw a further expansion of the existing ring because of the numerous bridges to be very complex and expensive.

The western portion of this second ring, the A 61 dar. as the eastern section then projected extension of the A 31 the through the countryside was planned. In the north these highways should be connected by the never -built A 54. The only completed section of it is today's A 542 The southern connection should be made by another Rhine crossing at Wesseling.

Other highways

The plans of the 1960s and 1970s saw the construction of many motorways in front of the Cologne area, four of which have additionally led to the eleven already present on the Cologne Ring. If all of these plans have been implemented, the Cologne Ring would lead nine interchanges and three highway triangles.

• The A 540, of which only a 7 km long section was built in Grevenbroich would be hit by Monchengladbach today junction Köln- Bocklemünd on the A1.
• Than 5 km link between the A 54 and the A 1 would have met at Cologne -Niehl on the ring, the A 552. Since the connected here road is widened to four lanes, the junction has the character of a motorway junction.
• The extension of the A43 north of Wuppertal should the exit Köln -Mülheim meet together with the A 59 at the Cologne ring.
• The A 553 should be extended from Brühl to the A 4 between the exit Köln - Eifeltor and the Köln- Süd.
• The A59 should be run from a motorway junction between Cologne -Mülheim and Leverkusen both sides of the A 3 to Heumarer triangle. The motorway junction Köln-Ost was already designed when building it.

Special

The 6 km long section of the A 3 / A 4 from the junction Köln-Ost on the Heumar to Gremberg is next to the section of the A 5 Homburger from Frankfurt West Cross to Bad Cross and the section of the A 61 from Kreuz Frankenthal to the Cross mother City is the only motorway section in Germany, followed by the three interchanges in succession, without any intervening find connections. This sequence is then interrupted only by the exit Köln - Poll, after the motorway junction Köln-Süd follows. The small number of connection points is due to the fact that apart from Heumarer triangle lead away all highways on the crosses as urban motorway or motorway slip road to Cologne in and thus replace interchanges.