Major construction site in Bonn Heavy beams float above the Viktoria Bridge
Bonn · On Monday afternoon, a giant crane lifted composite girders weighing several tons onto the construction site of the Viktoria Bridge. The girders hovered for a few minutes in the air. The police temporarily closed the bridge.
Those were spectacular sights on Monday morning on the Victoria Bridge: With the help of a giant crane, composite girders weighing tons were hoisted by a heavy-duty vehicle onto the construction site below the bridge. The girders floated for a few minutes at a dizzy height, so that police officers had to block the bridge for all car, bicycle and pedestrian traffic for safety reasons. This Monday, the first seven of a total of 21 composite girders for the new bridge had been delivered. The composite girders for the peripheral areas of the Viktoria Bridge weigh 35 tonnes and are 27 metres long. For the centre of the bridge they weigh 48 tonnes each and measure around 40 metres.
Since the construction crane - a so-called 500-tonne crawler crane – had to be set up in the opposite construction site due to space constraints, the girders had to be slewed over the Viktoria Bridge. From Tuesday onwards, the girders will be installed in the course of the week in the edge area of the bridge. According to the city, seven more are to follow by 18 December, with the last third to be installed in the new year.
Despite various delays, the city's Civil Engineering Department currently still expects the Victoria Bridge to be completed by the end of 2021/beginning of 2022. The start of demolition and new construction of the bridge was 2016 and the costs currently amount to around 45 million Euro. Originally, 24.6 million Euro were calculated for the new bridge construction, including demolition. The city of Bonn cited higher prices in the construction industry as the reason for the massive cost increase, but also special requests from politicians, such as the installation of a light canopy and the external appearance of the bridge piers.
Original text: Lisa Inhoffen
Translation: Mareike Graepel
