Mainz (dpa / lrs) – The approximately 1.3 kilometer long ailing Mombach high bridge in Mainz will be closed to traffic from next Monday. Your condition is worrying and the risk is too high, said Mayor Michael Ebling (SPD) in Mainz on Wednesday. The demolition has been prepared for a long time and the necessary expansion of the roads under the elevated road is now ready.
No traffic problems are to be expected from the closure. The closure is not a reaction to the concrete parts that have fallen from the Salzbachtal bridge. However, it has not yet been determined when the dismantling of the elevated road from the 1960s could begin.
The city is also in talks with Ludwigshafen, where part of Hochstraße Süd was dismantled last year. The two prestressed concrete structures are comparable.
The Mombach high bridge will not be blown up like the damaged Salzbachtal bridge on Autobahn 66 near Wiesbaden, said Ebling. An office should now create a demolition concept. The costs were expected to be in the low double-digit million range.
The Salzbachtal Bridge was closed after the superstructure had sunk by 30 centimeters and chunks of concrete had fallen. As a result, there are considerable traffic problems in Hesse. The closure has no impact on the neighboring state capital: “After the closure of the Salzbachtal Bridge, the traffic in Mainz has not changed,” said Ebling.
In Ludwigshafen, the 500 meter long route had to be demolished because, according to structural engineers, the route threatened to collapse. The section resting on mushroom-shaped pillars was closed in 2019 due to cracks in the construction. The second largest city in Rhineland-Palatinate is hoping for a new connection to be built by 2025. Hochstraße Süd and the north route, which is also about to be demolished, were important traffic axes in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region with municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.
According to the city, a maximum of 10,000 cars drive over the Mombacher Hochbrücke every day. For comparison: there are around four times as many on the Theodor-Heuss-Brücke between Mainz and Wiesbaden. The bridge runs over three railway lines, several private and commercial properties and the district road 17. The condition of the high bridge is checked regularly and has been considered “unsatisfactory” since 2012, Ebling said. Heavy traffic (over 7.5 tons) has not been allowed to drive over the bridge since 2015 and protective nets for falling concrete have already been installed in some places.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210630-99-206156 / 3
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