National Road B44, High Bridge North
The 1.7-km-long high bridge in Ludwigshafen had been completed in 1969 as inner-urban highway. It connects to Kurt-Schumacher-Bridge over the Rhine, crosses numerous roads and railway lines, a shopping centre close to the city hall and in the west the 8-tracked railway installation in the area of Ludwigshafen central station with several ICE main lines. In the west, it then connects to motorway A650. The 4-lane hollow box bridge made of prestressed concrete with an area of 63,600 m2, as well as its many branch-offs, had to be entirely replaced due to the bad condition it was in.
Instead of replacing the bridge with a corresponding structure, a public poll resulted in the decision to build a middle section at ground level, like a city boulevard, with an improved alignment and new design of junctions. Crossing the railway installations at Ludwigshafen central station requires a 445-m-long bridge called West Bridge. For the 2-lane carriageways, two separated composite steel superstructures, consisting of two tightly welded but walkable composite steel boxes have been designed and completed by a cast in-situ concrete slab constructed with a formwork traveller. The steel girders will be lifted into place during short authorized nightly close-offs and welded in sufficient distance to the overhead cables. The bridge has 10 spans with span widths of up to 60.35 metres. The alignment of the pile axes is adapted to the tracks’ directions so that the individual span widths of the composite girders vary due to the variable inclination of the abutment axes.