Renewal Federal Road B44 Elevated Bridge North, Ludwigshafen
The 1.7-km long elevated bridge in Ludwigshafen was completed in 1981 as city highway. It crosses several roads and railway lines as well as a shopping mall, and, in the west, spans the 8-tracked railway installations of Ludwigshafen Central Station. Due to its bad structural condition, the entire 4-lane prestressed concrete hollow box bridge will be replaced including its many branch-off ramps. Instead of an equivalent replacement, another bridge variant was chosen which comprises a city boulevard, which’s middle section is at terrain level, and improved alignment and new design of junctions.
Within the engineering joint venture, SSF acts as general planner for the ca. 800-m long “west part” with at its centre the 445-m long so-called West Bridge. It spans the railway installations of station Ludwigshafen with numerous ICE main lines. For the two double-lane carriageways, two separated composite steel superstructures are designed, consisting of two tightly welded but walkable steel boxes completed by an in-situ concrete slab built by formwork traveller.
In addition to the West Bridge, the planned foreland structures, exceptional sheet pile constructions of around 150-m length, can be highlighted. The flexible layout allows complex geometric connections to existing structures as well as temporary stages during construction.
Moreover, SSF’s scope of services entails the comprehensive adaptation of the shunting yard’s and freight station’s railway tracks to create space for assembly during construction as well as to recreate an efficient final state as a follow-up project to the West Bridge including superstructure design, railway line construction and cable engineering, railway passages during construction and buffer stops.