Cologne –
The Cologne bridge disaster begins on November 30, 2012 at the latest. Michael Groschek (SPD), then North Rhine-Westphalia’s transport minister, climbs on a ladder in the belly of the Leverkusen Rhine bridge on main girder 20, lights up the skeleton and yells at the traffic that is overflowing Thunders to him: “Even a layman will recognize that. You can’t repair anything here. ”More than eight years later, the first new part is still not there and patching continues where there is actually nothing left to be patched.
The current Transport Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) promises that this misery will come to an end by the end of 2023. But that doesn’t mean anything. It has been clear since Tuesday that the Mülheim Bridge is guaranteed not to be ready before the end of 2025. What this means for the Severinsbrücke, Zoobrücke and Deutzer Brücke renovation cases is completely open. Anyway, nothing good. The best-before date of the Rodenkirchener Brücke is also slowly running out, but a demolition and a new eight-lane construction in the course of the A 4 is not only opposed to the monument protection. It would have to be timed somehow, because the Fleher Bridge in Düsseldorf and the Rhine crossings in Bonn are waiting to be renewed. There are only two old ladies left who are at least technically in perfect shape: the Hohenzollern Bridge and the South Bridge. A map of the state of the Cologne bridges:
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