Carola Bridge

The Carola Bridge was a bridge in Dresden across the Elbe river, built in 1967 to 1971 replacing an earlier bridge, which had been built in 1895. The earlier Carola Bridge was destroyed by the SS on 7 May 1945, one day before VE Day, to prevent Soviet advance. A large section of the new bridge collapsed into the Elbe river on 11 September 2024. Since June 2025 the bridge is under demolition. [1]

Description

Since several drafts have been created, there was a competition from 1965 on, to choose the architect to design the bridge. The set demands were that the bridge should be thin without chains or similar structures to not conceal the skyline. On the other hand, it also should have fewer pillars to avoid impacting the shipping.

The bridge consisted of three separate parts (A-C), all consisting of Prestressed concrete. Part C have been mainly used for tram, part A and B for car transit. Each of the three parts consists of four sections connected with joints. On the second joint, the three parts are connected, to compensate exceptional forces on one of the parts.

In 2019 the construction works for the renovation of the bridge begun. The renewal of the roadways have been finished for part A and B and were scheduled for Part C.

In 2022 the bridge became a protected monument.

Collapse

Part C of the bridge collapsed between 02:58 and 02:59 (UTC+2). No injuries were reported.[2] The collapse also destroyed pipes inside the bridge, which caused a shutdown for the district heating in whole the city. To serve the demand for the winter months, a temporary pipe was installed on Augustus Bridge.[3]

To free the riverbed from the ruins, the demolition works only began one day later. Because of the Central European floods the works had to stop after a few days. Since part A and B were shifted by the collapse and also had the same flaws which lead to the collapse of part C the planners decided to demolish them either.[4][5]

In 2025 several bombs from World War II were accidentally found at the construction site, interrupting the works and demanding far-reaching evacuations.[6] In February 2025 the detectors registered cracks in the tensed steel of the parts A and B, after which the demolition of those were accelerated.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Germany: Bridge in Dresden collapses into Elbe river, Deutsche Welle, 11 September 2024
  2. ^ Germany: Carola Bridge in Dresden collapses into Elbe river, Deutsche Welle, 11 September 2024
  3. ^ Baumann-Hartwig, Thomas (2024-11-26). "Fernwärme: Notleitung für Neustadt in Dresden wird pünktlich fertig". www.dnn.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  4. ^ mdr.de. "Abrissbagger rollen an der Carolabrücke | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  5. ^ "Hochwasser: Abrissarbeiten an Carolabrücke vorerst eingestellt". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  6. ^ mdr.de. "Bombenexperte und Baufirma fordern neues Sicherheitskonzept an Carolabrücke | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  7. ^ mdr.de. "Gefahr in Verzug: Carolabrücke soll ohne Ausschreibung abgerissen werden | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-11.

Media related to Carola Bridge in Dresden at Wikimedia Commons

51°03′17″N 13°44′49″E / 51.0547°N 13.7470°E / 51.0547; 13.7470

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.