Thursday, December 16, 2021
Half needs to be renovated
Autobahn GmbH is planning more bridge construction sites
The German highways are facing a problem: half of the bridges will reach the end of their lifespan in the coming years. The Autobahn Company wants to hurry up so that they can be renovated in good time – and have set up a task force.
In the coming year, the federal motorway company intends to focus in particular on the renovation of bridges. “We have to double the number of bridges to be renewed annually from 200 to 400”, said the chairman of the management of Autobahn GmbH, Stephan Krenz.
Around half of the 28,000 motorway bridges in Germany were built between the 1960s and 1980s, according to Autobahn GmbH. They reached the end of their lifespan in the years to come. At the same time, traffic on the motorways has almost doubled since the early 1980s. Above all, the proportion of heavy goods traffic as well as large-capacity and heavy goods transport has increased significantly. The Autobahn GmbH wants to promote the maintenance, renovation and renewal of the motorway bridges in the entire network and has set up a “Bridge Task Force” for this purpose.
Krenz spoke of a successful first year for the Autobahn GmbH. In the first year of operation, 4.92 billion euros were invested in the maintenance and expansion of the federal highways. This sum is almost at the same level as the previous year in all federal states. Around 5000 planning and construction projects have been worked on. Around 275,000 invoices have been posted. In a short time it was possible to cope with considerable tasks.
The federal government has been responsible for the operation, maintenance and expansion of the motorways since the beginning of 2021, previously it was the states. The aim of the major reform: build faster and less traffic jams. Roads and bridges also have a high need for renovation. In addition to commencing construction, operation, administration, maintenance and financing of the motorway network, Autobahn GmbH has started “significant future projects” for more security, service and construction acceleration, said Krenz. He referred, for example, to the opening of a pilot facility for modern rest areas.
There had been repeated criticism of the new motorway company, for example because the costs had risen or there were delays in IT systems. Actually, the German Unity Fernstraßenplanungs- und -bau GmbH was supposed to be integrated into the Autobahn GmbH – but this was stopped in view of legal concerns.