Wiehltal bridge
50.9747222222227.4902777777778Koordinaten: 50 ° 58 ' 29 " N, 7 ° 29' 25" E
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The Wiehltal Bridge is a 1971 completed viaduct of the Federal Highway 4 between Cologne and Olpe on the Wiehltal in Gummersbach Oberbergisch district in North Rhine -Westphalia, Germany. Which belongs to Wiehl village Weiershagen is below the girder bridge. The bridge is 30.25 meters wide, 705 meters long and has an area of 21,326 square meters. Their greatest height above ground is 60 meters. The superstructure is a steel structure for both directions of travel, rest the roller bearing on reinforced concrete piers.
Serious accident
On August 26, 2004, loaded with 32,000 liters of fuel tanker truck crashed after a collision with a car on the bridge and caught fire. The truck driver was killed. The guard rails and there inset Safeties could not intercept the truck, as they were designed for vehicles up to 13 tons. Through the fire parts of the bridge were so badly damaged that it had to be closed because of insufficient bearing capacity, from 26 August to 7 October 2004. During this time a temporary repair took place.
The Wiehltal bridge disaster was, according to the insurance of 30 million euros of the hitherto most expensive car accident in the Federal Republic of Germany.
The time of the accident 26- year-old, which is under the influence of drugs cause was sentenced to 22 months in prison. His brother, who owned the car and sat as a passenger in the car, was convicted in a separate process to a fine, as he had himself first called the driver to protect his younger brother, who had no driver's license.
Repair
After a temporary repair with 27 additional steel braces and the excavation of approximately 10,000 tons of contaminated soil, the actual repair started by the maps were simply NRW and the company appointed by him during the summer holidays of 2006.
When repairing a 600 -square-meter bridge section was removed and replaced by a new steel structure. In this scale, it was a unique project, which until then had never taken place somewhere. At the same time, among others, the road surface of the bridge was rehabilitated.
The highway was therefore completely closed from June 28 to August 22, 2006. Traffic was diverted through the surrounding country roads.
On 18 October 2007, the bridge opened to traffic has been fully released.
Reactions
20,000 euros will be collected was initiated - by the strong media response was at a fundraiser in favor of the killed in the accident truck driver family - originally as a neighborly action.
The village community, the immediate neighbor of the accident site, was built in the summer of 2006 together with the family of the driver and with the support of the city of Wiehl, a permanent memorial.