Bridge collapse in Dresden

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roadtester
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Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by roadtester »

Part of the Carola Bridge, one of the major crossings of the Elbe in Dresden has collapsed.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-bridge-in ... a-70185172

No casualties as the collapse occurred in the early hours of the morning but a lot of disruption is expected.

On the German TV news this evening, the early thinking seems to be that the bridge had been weakened by corrosion resulting from salting of the road surface penetrating the structure to a hitherto unappreciated extent. It was also reported that the bridge carried two major district heating pipes/conduits (I think this is quite widespread in the former GDR) so there will be disruption on that front too.

Overall, it looks bad, but could have been so much worse.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by Big L »

I saw this footage posted on Facebook earlier.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by wallmeerkat »

Shocking and glad it isn't worse, especially after Genoa.

Looking as Dresden on maps, it looks like there are a few diversion routes, though I'm not sure how feasible it is to "reverse" a tram to head west to take the next bridge - https://www.google.com/maps/search/caro ... FQAw%3D%3D to head for the Augustus bridge.

Will it be causing concern on this side of the channel, with our heavily salted in winter roads?
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by Bryn666 »

The eyebrow raiser for me was "renovated between 2019 and 2021" - that will surely be under the microscope.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by ravenbluemoon »

From what my German friends have been saying, Germany's roads seem be suffering from underinvestment and deferred maintenance just as bad as the railways have. I can't remember where it was, but there's a significant autobahn bridge that has been limited to 3.5 tonnes for some time now - it's rather like banning vans and lorries from the M42!
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by Brenley Corner »

It has already made it onto this Wikipedia page of bridge failures. Here it says "Collapse of light rail bridge part" - although I cant find anything else to back this assertion up. The photo on the DW picture does show an intact span behind the collapsed one so may be this is correct.
Given that this was in East Germany when built, it would have been to an Eastern European specification and budget of the time (late 60s) so I suspect the best materials weren't used.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

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Brenley Corner wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 13:47 It has already made it onto this Wikipedia page of bridge failures. Here it says "Collapse of light rail bridge part" - although I cant find anything else to back this assertion up. The photo on the DW picture does show an intact span behind the collapsed one so may be this is correct.
Given that this was in East Germany when built, it would have been to an Eastern European specification and budget of the time (late 60s) so I suspect the best materials weren't used.
Yes it's the tram bridge, the parallel road bridge did not collapse.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by A303Chris »

Luckily this was during the middle of the night, during the day the implications, you just don't want to think about.

However, it was refurbished between 2019 and 2021 but was built in the late 60's when Dresden was behind the Iron Curtain. When I went to Moscow in 2008, I thought the infrastructure didn't look that secure in some places and construction may not been up to western standards.

Could this be a factor as well?
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

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Brenley Corner wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 13:47 It has already made it onto this Wikipedia page of bridge failures. Here it says "Collapse of light rail bridge part" - although I cant find anything else to back this assertion up. The photo on the DW picture does show an intact span behind the collapsed one so may be this is correct.
Good list of Bridges, but does not include the Loddon Bridge Disaster, I may have been only four but remember it very well as I just lived up the road from it in Woodley.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by roadtester »

Brenley Corner wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 13:47 It has already made it onto this Wikipedia page of bridge failures. Here it says "Collapse of light rail bridge part" - although I cant find anything else to back this assertion up. The photo on the DW picture does show an intact span behind the collapsed one so may be this is correct.
Given that this was in East Germany when built, it would have been to an Eastern European specification and budget of the time (late 60s) so I suspect the best materials weren't used.
Yes - the bridge appears to be two or three separate sets of closely-spaced parallel spans/decks, separate ones for road traffic and trams, but all resting on the same pillars/supports. It is part of the tram bit that has collapsed but my understanding is that this has also caused the road spans to be taken out of use at least for now, hence serious disruption.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by murphaph »

Only the other two parallel road vehicle spans had been recently "renovated". The one that collapsed hadn't been, but I seriously doubt the "renovation" would have prevented the reinforced concrete from snapping. The "renovations" carried out on the other spans were just to the roadways. They didn't strengthen the spans or anything as major as that. Pretty frightening stuff and living in the former GDR I will now find myself constantly wondering if the bridge I'm driving over is going to give way under me :-( The odds are slim, probably about as slim as being in a plane crash but that's human nature I suppose.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by murphaph »

Last night they started demolishing the remainder of span C which has been slowly sinking since the main collapse. They needed to expedite this collapse and to get the collapsed segments out of the water asap as flood waters are expected in the coming days. They were lucky with the time of day of the collapse but not the time of year it seems. Heavy rain over Czechia is forecast and Dresden and the Elbe have flooded many times before.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by bothar »

murphaph wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 07:20 Last night they started demolishing the remainder of span C which has been slowly sinking since the main collapse. They needed to expedite this collapse and to get the collapsed segments out of the water asap as flood waters are expected in the coming days. They were lucky with the time of day of the collapse but not the time of year it seems. Heavy rain over Czechia is forecast and Dresden and the Elbe have flooded many times before.
In advance of this rain, the Czech are lowering their reservoirs. The Germans asked them to stop because of the bridge, but the Czechs said no.
Isn't Czechia the "roof" of Europe, in that all rivers flow out.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

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bothar wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 20:48 Isn't Czechia the "roof" of Europe, in that all rivers flow out.
Major rivers, perhaps. The Lužnice and some other tributaries of the Vltava flow in from Austria. This is in Czechia, looking back towards the Austrian border.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by bothar »

SteelCamel wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2024 09:16
bothar wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 20:48 Isn't Czechia the "roof" of Europe, in that all rivers flow out.
Major rivers, perhaps. The Lužnice and some other tributaries of the Vltava flow in from Austria. This is in Czechia, looking back towards the Austrian border.
So this is another "fact" that requires a particular definition of a river.
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Re: Bridge collapse in Dresden

Post by Norfolktolancashire »

It will be interesting to see how far the regular checks on this bridge went.
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