The Berlin police completely blocked the Elsenbrücke between Treptow and Friedrichshain early on Monday morning at around 4:30 a.m. The load capacity sensors of the bridge had triggered, the police reported on Twitter. At both ends of the bridge between Friedrichshain and Treptow, long traffic jams formed in the morning during rush hour. Stralauer Allee and Puschkinallee were particularly hard hit.
“The Oberbaumbrücke is the main alternative route,” informed the traffic information center (VIZ). “Please plan a much longer time.” The journey time from Puschkinallee to Schlesisches Tor is one hour. Another alternative in the southeast is the Minna-Todenhagen Bridge.
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According to the VIZ, there are also traffic jams on Warschauer Straße towards Oberbaumbrücke and Andreasstraße towards Schillingbrücke. According to the police, the bridge has also been closed to bicycle and foot traffic since around 4:30 a.m. As an alternative, if they dismount, cyclists can use the pedestrian bridge running parallel to the railway line, which is not affected by the closure, together with pedestrians.
A block also applies to shipping traffic under the bridge. In the morning, a construction company took over the security of the construction site so that the police could withdraw from the bridge at 10.50 a.m. Around noon, the damage to the ailing bridges should be checked by an engineer. The result of this check should determine whether the lanes of the heavily trafficked bridge can be reopened.
Before the start of construction work, the Elsenbrücke ran over around 55,000 vehicles every day. Since the damage was discovered, only three instead of six car lanes have been left, and many drivers have looked for other routes.
In 2018, so great damage to the bridge from GDR times was discovered that the eastern half had to be closed. Hidden and inaccessible in the concrete are steel cables that are important for the statics of the structure. Those ropes had already broken in the eastern part, which was also noticeable through cracks in the concrete. It quickly became clear that the western section would also have to be demolished because it is identical in construction.
Some parts of the bridge have now been dismantled to make room for a new building. From the beginning of 2022, all traffic between Treptow-Köpenick and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg will temporarily flow over a replacement bridge. (with ho / dpa)
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