Repair after the flood Traffic will be moving again on the A61 toward Venlo as of Monday
Swisttal · The Autobahn GmbH wants to quickly reopen the A61 between the Kerpen-Türnich and Erftstadt-Gymnich junctions after the flood. Other work will still take months.
It is expected that on Monday, September 13, the A61 between the junctions Erftstadt-Gymnich and Kerpen-Türnich will be passable again in the direction of Venlo. This was announced by Autobahn GmbH Rheinland, which plans to open the section in the course of Monday after all the damage caused by the storm disaster has been repaired in the past two months.
The background: billions of euros worth of damage were caused to the infrastructure in the southern Rhineland. In addition to the destroyed roads and railroads, according to information from Autobahn GmbH Rheinland, more than 100 structures on roads were damaged, including bridges, tunnels, noise barriers and retaining walls.
Twelve bridges must be demolished and rebuilt
In addition, there were numerous landslides that destabilised the roads. On the A1, A61 and A553 alone, Autobahn GmbH Rheinland counted around 20 such incidents. Twelve bridges had to be completely demolished and rebuilt, two of them on freeways.
According to Autobahn GmbH, it is working "at full speed to make the A61 partly temporary so that interregional traffic can use the stretch between the Kerpen and Meckenheim interchanges again."
In general, the repairs of the A1, A61 and A553 have high priority. After just over a month, about 85 percent of the former 220 road closures have been lifted. Nevertheless, the damage is so massive that the work will take months in places.
(Original text: Stephan Stegmann; Translation: Mareike Graepel)
