Strengthening the Major Bridges on the A45 Motorway Recalculation – Immediate Measures – Reinforcement Concepts

An increase of 50 percent in heavy freight traffic alone on German roads can be expected by the year 2050. The volume of freight will rise from a current 3.7 billion tonnes to almost 5.5 billion tonnes in this period. Freight service will rise at the same rate in this period from a current approx. 600 billion tonne kilometres to more than 1200 tonne kilometres. Most of the traffic runs on public motorways (about 33% of the traffic volume with a road network share of just 5%). The majority of bridges on Hessian motorways are prestressed concrete bridges built in the period from 1966 to 1970 – a good third of the existing bridges in Hessen date from this time period. However, after almost 50 years the load bearing capacity reserves of these bridges have been used up due to the increase in traffic. At the same time, the question of durability rises given the condition of the bridges. The Hessian Office for Road and Traffic Affairs subjected 20 major bridges on the A45 motorway to a static recalculation.