Rodenkirchener Brücke, Köln, NRW, Germany
Posted by: 
argus1972
N 50° 54.008 E 006° 59.454
32U E 358725 N 5640641
The Rodenkirchen Bridge is a steel suspension bridge over the Rhine located in Cologne, Germany. Completed in 1954, it has a main span of 378 metres.
Waymark Code: WMY9R4
Location: Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Date Posted: 05/16/2018
Views: 8
The original bridge was built from 1938 to 1941, after the design of Paul Bonatz and the planning of Fritz Leonhardt, for the Autobahn Cologne-Aachen.
Today the Bundesautobahn 4 is the southern wing of the Cologne Beltway.
The Rodenkirchener Rhine bridge was named after the Cologne district of Rodenkirchen and is an earth-anchored cable suspension bridge with a supporting width of 378 metres what proves a whole supporting width of 567 metres together with both side openings of 94. 5 metres. The 59. 4-metre-high pylons are clamped in the pillars. The first bridge had two direction roadways of 7. 50-metre width, in the middle a cycle track of 2. 80 metres and two footpaths of 2. 40 metres.
It was the first real suspension bridge of Germany and by her inauguration on the 20th of September, 1941 the biggest suspension bridge of Europe.
The bridge was destroyed due to an airstrike on 14 January 1945.
The reconstruction took place between 1952 and 1954 and considered the preserved pylons. The building cost amounted to 17. 2 million DM. More than 3000 t of steel were saved by material improvements and other technical optimisation. The new bridge was only built from 3350 tons of steel, unlike the old bridge with 6100 tons.
The bridge was opened for traffic on the 9th of December, 1954.
The cables from 1954 have a diameter of 50 centimetres and exist of 61 single ropes. The slope of the cables between pylon and the middle of the bridge amounts to 42 metres. The slope ropes have a diameter of 5. 4 centimetres and are arranged in the distance of 10. 5 metres.
The steadily rising traffic amount required a widening of from four to six lanes. The construction planners decided on a bridge widening on the north side of the present bridge and expandeded it with an equal bridge, sharing the middle cable with the 1954 bridge.
The roadway was widened from from 26. 4 metres to 52. 8 metres. The total width with pedestrian's ways and cycle paths amounts to 56. 6 metres. The rebuilding took place between 1990 and 1994 and cost 184 million DM. The inauguration occurred on the 9th of December, 1994, exactly 40 years after introduction of the rebuilt bridge.
Today more than 130,000 cars cross the bridge daily.
Date Completed: 12/09/1954
Usage: Automobile
Length: 567 metres
WWW: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
Log your find with the picture of the bridge that you like. No gpsr required in the photo...different seasons and lighting for the pictures is what will be the goal.