Status: 03/22/2021 6:00 a.m.
After the longest closure in its history, Autobahn 7 in Hamburg was reopened to traffic early Monday morning. The A7 was closed for four days due to construction work.
Since 4.35 a.m., traffic has been rolling again without problems, said a spokesman for the traffic control center on Monday. The background to the full closure was construction work to widen the motorway from six to eight lanes by the end of 2028. In addition, it should be provided with a noise protection cover in the affected area. Half of the bridges Behringstrasse, Osdorfer Weg and Bahrenfelder Chaussee were demolished during the construction work. On the remaining half of the bridge, the east-west traffic will continue to roll over the autobahn.
No traffic chaos
The autobahn was no longer passable on late Thursday evening between the Hamburg-Waltershof and Hamburg-Volkspark junctions. Late on Friday evening, the blockage was extended again and the A7 to the north was blocked from Hamburg-Heimfeld. Contrary to expectations, however, this hardly led to major traffic jams at the weekend. “The cars are rolling everywhere and there is no slow-moving traffic,” said a spokesman for the Hamburg traffic control center on Sunday. Even on Saturday, the full closure did not lead to a difficult traffic situation. According to the federal project company DEGES, the feared traffic chaos had already failed to materialize on Friday. There was a slightly increased volume of traffic on the bypass routes.
DEGES spokesman Christian Merl said that the motorists had stuck to the extensive diversions. “Our impression is also that a lot of people took our warnings seriously and left the car behind.”
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