Closure of the Elster Bridge in Barthmühle: Chaos for commuters until November!

Closure of the Elster Bridge in Barthmühle: Chaos for commuters until November!

In Barthmühle, the district road will remain closed until the end of November 2025, and this will once again cause anger and incomprehension among residents and commuters. The Elster Bridge, which was only opened six months ago, has already turned out to be a problem area again. The direct connection between Jocketa and Röttis is once again unusable, which causes many detours and creates an unfortunate situation like this Free press reported.

The new bridge over the White Elster was opened to traffic on December 19, 2024. But the joy about it didn't last long. The old bridge was originally closed in November 2022 due to severe washouts, and the subsequent detours were a real test of patience for residents. They had to endure the uncertain fate of their relationship for over two years and prepare for longer journeys. The current lockdown has now exacerbated the picture again, like that SSF engineers explain.

The consequences of the lockdown

Now the residents are faced with new challenges: the closure of the bridge not only affects the residents of Jocketa and Röttis, but also the important access to Barthmühle train station. After all, this bridge is the only connection to the train station and is therefore crucial for commuters and travelers. The bridge's speed bump has been optimized so that the new construction meets the requirements of rail operations on the Gera - Weischlitz route, although this is proving to be less possible in the long term due to the immediate new closure.

The construction time of the new bridge was just five months, which shows the efficiency of the project. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that we are continually confronted with numerous problems when imagining this infrastructure. The entire project is also closely linked to the renovation of the historic Elstertal Bridge, which doesn't make things any easier. Every construction has its challenges and the choice of materials plays an important role - a topic that is also important in the context of many other bridges in Germany.

Bridges in Germany – an overview

In Germany, the infrastructure includes around 39,500 bridges in the federal highway network. In total there are around 51,360 bridge substructures with a total area of ​​over 30 million m². To ensure that our bridges can withstand modern requirements, numerous new buildings and renovations are taking place, with a particularly large proportion of German bridges being made of prestressed concrete. The building culture shows that modernization is an important topic in the new federal states, as well as here in Barthmühle. The Federal Ministry of Transport underlines how wide-ranging the challenges are in bridge construction and that a good hand is always necessary to make the transport infrastructure future-proof.