Unfinished German autobahns

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shawmat
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Unfinished German autobahns

Post by shawmat »

The pre-War Todt programme building the German autobahn network was hugely ambitious but fizzled out around 1941 as workers were drafted into the German military. I have come across a map (link below) that appears to show almost the final state reached in 1941. It covers eastern German (as it was), Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Autobahns are shown as complete, in progress and planned.

North-west of Berlin, the route to Hamburg was under construction. But is was only completed in the 1980s, and I have seen a photo of it being used by horse riders during the 40-year gap. The roads between Berlin and Dresden are shown as being under construction – I am sure they were completed before 1945.

The main autobahn to Breslau (now Wrocław) was built with only one carriageway, which remains as it was. The second carriageway was added around 2000 (I think), built with a shoulder to motorway standard, so you have an interesting case of a road being classified a motorway on one side, not the other.

There are a couple of sections in Czech and Slovakia that can still be traced on the ground that were not completed. These were intended to connect Silesia and Austria across occupied Czechoslovak territory. I cannot, however, find any evidence of the planned route sweeping through the Sudetenland (the area south-east of Dresden) ever commenced.

The “Berlinka”, linking Berlin to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), was well under way on German territory, but the Polish Corridor west of Danzig (now Gdansk) was only occupied in 1939 and the road did not reach there in time.

https://timetableworld.com/ttw-viewer?t ... fffed80ec9
WHBM
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by WHBM »

shawmat wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 12:29
The main autobahn to Breslau (now Wrocław) was built with only one carriageway, which remains as it was. The second carriageway was added around 2000 (I think), built with a shoulder to motorway standard, so you have an interesting case of a road being classified a motorway on one side, not the other.
I drove down this one, SE from Berlin, through to the turn for Lubin, most of the way to Wroclaw, in 1990 in my XR3i. It was dual then, and obviously had been since WW2 days. Concrete construction, a constant vibration, plus a ker-thunk, ker-thunk, ker-thunk over all the expansion joints and the occasional ker-WHAM over a repair, especially at bridges, some of which required severe temporary speed limits. Both carriageways were notably dilapadated and at what passed for junctions, which had no deceleration lanes, the exits had in some cases completely deteriorated and been filled with gravel.

I see on Google that it has been reconstructed, in concrete, which itself has required asphalt repair patching, but still with no shoulders.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.2781646 ... 312!8i6656
shawmat
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by shawmat »

In the picture, you can see the original carriageway heading SE, concrete, no shoulder. The NW direction was added more recently. This is the A18 between the German border and the junction with the A4, known as the A18/E36. TThe A4 was completed quite recently, and involved upgrading the whole original motorway past Wroclaw to Katowice. In Wroclaw, there is still a filling station in the Y of an exit (courtesy of Google).
Autobahn Poland.JPG
Wroclaw.JPG
booshank
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by booshank »

shawmat wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 12:29
The main autobahn to Breslau (now Wrocław) was built with only one carriageway, which remains as it was. The second carriageway was added around 2000 (I think), built with a shoulder to motorway standard, so you have an interesting case of a road being classified a motorway on one side, not the other.
Wot, no (half) D2 ALR autobahn? ;) I thought a motorway was just a road with a piece of paper anyway.
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bothar
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by bothar »

Some related stuff in the previous thread.
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roadtester
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by roadtester »

bothar wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 01:26 Some related stuff in the previous thread.
Also here:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40837
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shawmat
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by shawmat »

Thanks for the many links. That should give me some evening viewing...

The map I shared deserves a close look. I'm hoping that people will comment on the various bits that were not finished. Strecke 46 is wholly within Germany, and is beginning to get some attention from local German explorers. But what about the bits in Czech? And Poland? You can see them in satellite pictures, but who has explored them?

https://timetableworld.com/ttw-viewer?t ... fffed80ec9
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by RJDG14 »

This is a topic that has just come to mind. I know that there were a few Nazi-era autobahn projects where construction started but was abruptly halted due to the onset of WWII. The Berlinka was probably the most notable of them, but I think there were others, particularly in the former East and Poland which didn't have the funding to finish them. I think most of the unfinished projects in West Germany were eventually completed and opened.
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by KeithW »

shawmat wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 17:47 Thanks for the many links. That should give me some evening viewing...

The map I shared deserves a close look. I'm hoping that people will comment on the various bits that were not finished. Strecke 46 is wholly within Germany, and is beginning to get some attention from local German explorers. But what about the bits in Czech? And Poland? You can see them in satellite pictures, but who has explored them?

https://timetableworld.com/ttw-viewer?t ... fffed80ec9

Given the shortage of fuel in German occupied Europe I suspect many of them were abandoned by the end of 1943. The pre war diesel locomotives they had built were mostly laid up for the same reason. The British, Commonwealth and US Armies were motorised but the Wehrmacht depended on horse drawn wagons.

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fras
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by fras »

There are some post-war autobahns still unfinished, like the A60 where the formation is complete, but long sections are only one carriageway, the other one having never been built. This is part of the E42, and I've been along it both ways many times.
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by shawmat »

I've managed to trace five sections of unfinished autobahn in Poland, Czechia and Russia. I've done this using Google Earth, and looking for the earthworks. Although this isn't ancient history, in many cases you can only follow the line by looking at different tree growth in forests or uneven colours in arable fields. The line in NW Czechia around Liberec is the hardest to follow, but I'm greatly helped by the 1940 map originally posted: https://timetableworld.com/viewer.php?t ... fffed80ec9

You can see the overview map here:
Unfinished autobahns overview map.JPG
There is a KMZ file available which can be loaded into Google Earth.

I may not have found all the examples, so please let me know of any others.
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Unfinished Autobahns.kmz
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KeithW
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by KeithW »

The Wehrmacht wanted the roads to make it easier to transport troops and supplies more easily, the problem of course was that the chief lunatic decided to press the button early. His masterplan was to capture the Caucasian oil fields but the Soviets blew them up and they ended up losing an entire army at Stalingrad, the rest as they say is history.
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by Vierwielen »

KeithW wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 11:38 The Wehrmacht wanted the roads to make it easier to transport troops and supplies more easily, the problem of course was that the chief lunatic decided to press the button early. His masterplan was to capture the Caucasian oil fields but the Soviets blew them up and they ended up losing an entire army at Stalingrad, the rest as they say is history.
I left South Africa in 1978. On a return visit I noticed how many roads had been spruced up, especially motorways. I also noticed how many country roads were built with huge hard shoulders which were used by cyclists, donkey carts etc. It struck me that the hard shoulders were probably a lot cheaper to build than the main carriageway and it was fine for donkey carts etc to use them for 99% of the time, because their real use was to enable the army to move quickly to any trouble spots with four vehicles abreast (or three if they allowed civillan traffic on one of the hard shoulders).
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by Komi san »

I somehow reassumed this category but when I was checking Aschaffenburg on Google Maps I saw that A3-A45 Interchange looked like unfinished cloverleaf interchange that was modified to become trumped style junction. Do you think that A45 was planned to go beyond Aschaffenburg?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Jsw5zsoMxGcZ8XLW8
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by Herned »

Komi san wrote: Fri Nov 24, 2023 21:40 I somehow reassumed this category but when I was checking Aschaffenburg on Google Maps I saw that A3-A45 Interchange looked like unfinished cloverleaf interchange that was modified to become trumped style junction. Do you think that A45 was planned to go beyond Aschaffenburg?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Jsw5zsoMxGcZ8XLW8
It was planned to continue south to the A8 east of Stuttgart - wikipedia has a map, the German pages have much more detail
Komi san
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by Komi san »

Also Northern terminus of A81 looks like they wanted to build four stack interchange. If you look closely you can see unfinished sliproads

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7ryRYJxAf9nKhC5o9
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by RJDG14 »

Did the Autobahns originally have a black lane marking, or was this the gap/sealing between the two concrete sections of the carriageway? I've wondered in the past when white dashed markings became the norm on them. I think white markings had been added to the majority of Autobahns by the 1950s based on photos I've seen.
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Re: Unfinished German autobahns

Post by KeithW »

There is an unfinished section of Autobahn here in Czechia
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.6990415 ... &entry=ttu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borovsko_Bridge

They built the bridge but the Autobahn never got built.
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