New Bridge Woes

 Wiesbaden has a reputation on bridges....mostly that they 'think' that they are keeping them up with maintenance.....then one day, you wake up and find that the bridge is in dangerous shape, and has to be shut-down.

So for the record, if you asked most folks from this community of 293k residents....there's five significant bridges (two autobahn, two railway, and one city route to Mainz).  But there is a sixth bridge....it just doesn't cross the Rhine. 

The Salzbachtalbrucke bridge is 310 meters long, and is the A66 bridge which crosses a valley area, and the exit on the area leads to a state-road getting you into Wiesbaden or into Biebrich (toward the river).  It's been around since 1963, and easily has 80-thousand-plus cars that pass over it every single day.  

So, around six years ago, the state had a renovation plan drawn up.  35-million Euro in the mix.  Traffic would be slowed down on the autobahn, and lanes would be limited.  

About two years into the project, it was discovered that the frame of the bridge....through work....had actually been damaged.  This triggered a fair amount of chaos, but it still stayed open.

Well...at some point on Friday of last week....someone was walking around the underside of the bridge, and there's obvious damage now.  Engineers came in, and it really unsettled them.....so the bridge and this part of A66's autobahn....was shut down.

So, there are three issues here.

First, this is not a weekend or month-long shutdown....they are now hinting at the very least.....weeks, and the odds are months long period where it will not be functional.

Second, everything on the A66 autobahn will be routed to cross the river into Mainz, and cross the Rhine again....to reach the other side of Wiesbaden (basically adding 30 minutes and tons of extra traffic to the route).

Third, underneath this 'broke' bridge was  a entry 4-lane road into Wiesbaden (what you could have driven from Mainz)....bringing you into the heart of the city.  That possibility is gone because they consider the entire area under the bridge to be unsafe.  Added to this....a rail 'spur' also went under the bridge....bringing long-distance trains into the Wiesbaden train station.  That probably is also thrown into the chaos (for weeks and months).

Third set of bridge woes in five years?  Yeah, that's really the big chunk of this story, and tens of thousands of locals use the bridge or the roadway/railway under it.....daily.