Railway bridge in Wakendorf I: Permanent delays due to drainage problems!

Railway bridge in Wakendorf I: Permanent delays due to drainage problems!

In Wakendorf I, the new railway bridge has finally opened its doors and the Northern Railway is back in operation. But this good news is overshadowed by numerous difficulties and delays. The original reopening of the underpass on Havighorster Straße, which was planned for November 2024, is still a long time coming. The reason for this is an unexpected problem - the drainage of the bridge was simply overlooked during the planning, which led to a virtual standstill. That's what she reports LN.

The old bridge, which dates back to 1908, was dilapidated and has been renovated several times in the past. Their cracks in the masonry required an urgency that ultimately resulted in construction starting in 2024, but was hampered by poor weather conditions and rocky terrain. The construction workers had to find creative solutions to adapt the construction to the conditions. Drivers are now forced to take detours because the underpass floods after rainfall. A look at the drainage situation shows that the street drainage on Havighorster Straße is not yet connected to the municipality's rainwater shaft, and the drainage of the bridge and the railway embankment has also not been adequately planned.

Standstill in bridge renovations

The Wakendorf I case is not an isolated case. Michael Gilka, General Manager of the Federal Association of Medium-Sized Construction Companies (BVMB), criticizes the general standstill in bridge renovations in Germany. Many bridges are in such poor condition that they can no longer be economically repaired. There are around 25,740 railway bridges in Germany, and many of them, like the one in Wakendorf I, face major challenges. 1,160 of these bridges are so dilapidated that they need to be replaced, as the BVMB found in a recently published member survey. There are simply too few tenders for bridge construction projects, which Gilka describes as alarming. The financial resources that have to be made available for renovation are becoming increasingly scarce, which in the long term endangers not only the infrastructure but also the economy. This is reported by the Bayika.

The numbers speak volumes: According to a current report on the condition of bridges in Germany, which is available on the website Construction network There are a total of 130,000 bridges in the country, of which around one in 7 to 8 is in need of renovation. Municipalities own 67,000 bridges, and about half of them are in poor condition. Investments of around 11 billion euros will be required by 2030 to renovate or rebuild many of these structures. Even short-term solutions such as the temporary drainage in Wakendorf I are not the answer to this widespread problem.

For the residents of Wakendorf I, the construction phase is not only characterized by strong noise emissions, but also by inconveniences caused by detours. A festival for the entire village will be planned when the road is finally completed. Until then, there remains hope for a quick solution to the problems that will make daily life easier for the local people.