bridges

In Dresden, part of the city’s most important Elbe bridge has collapsed. Thousands of bridges across Germany need to be repaired.

Parts of the Carola Bridge over the Elbe have collapsed; it was used by trams, cyclists and pedestrians. Photo: Matthias Rietschel/reuters

The new symbol of the dilapidated state of infrastructure in Germany has a macabre aesthetic: the free-spanning middle section of the Carola Bridge in Dresden has collapsed almost symmetrically between the pillars into the Elbe. Two ramps lead to a section lying horizontally in the water. As you get closer, the cycle and pedestrian path that led over this parallel part of the three bridges is just as easy to see as the tram sleepers. The rails, however, hang unbroken in the air, as does the overhead wire halfway up. The crown tower of the Saxon State Chancellery towers above everything in the background.

At 2:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the last tram crossed the bridge, and 18 minutes later the bridge collapsed. In the morning, everyone responsible was therefore relieved that neither pedestrians nor vehicles crossed the bridge and that no one was injured.

“This is a morning you never want to experience,” Holger Kalbe, the city’s head of the bridges and civil engineering department, began his statement. When he then commented on the suspected causes of the accident, a slight murmur went through the press conference gathered on the Terrassenufer. “This is a risk that we have been dealing with for years!” It is known that there were massive chloride deposits during the GDR era, including from winter road salt. For a long time, there was a lack of adequate maintenance. Kalbe therefore does not rule out corrosion on the prestressed concrete bridge, favored by overhead line and light masts. Since 2019, the other two tracks have been renovated using modern carbon concrete. The work was completed in June of this year, and the renovation of the now collapsed bridge section should begin next year.

Fear of rain at the weekend

The successor to the first Carola Bridge, opened in 1971, was originally the pride of socialist transport planning and the most important north-south connection across the Elbe in Dresden. The three bridges were connected to each other. A crossbar is clearly visible at the demolition site.

Department head Kalbe therefore sees the inspection of the remaining bridge sections A and B as a priority. “The entire bridge section has shrunk due to the partial collapse,” he explains, and on one side it is “only supporting the last few centimeters.” Demolition is likely. But first a concept must be developed as to how the section that has collapsed into the Elbe can be removed.

The closure of the Carola Bridge, the terraced bank below it and the Elbe shipping is only the beginning of a series of consequences of the accident that are still obvious. The Saxon Steamship Company usually sees the highest number of tourists in September. But now the Elbe is completely closed about a kilometer upstream. Managing director Stefan Bloch speaks of a “financial disaster”; there is no insurance for such a case. But he cannot hide his anger at the “negligence” of the city’s construction and traffic authorities. Department head Kalbe described the apparently bad condition of the bridge as “unforeseeable.”

There is now concern about the expected heavy rainfall this coming weekend. The Elbe could reach a level of 5 meters. The district heating supply from the hot water that leaked out earlier is apparently less at risk.

Large backlog of renovations

Dresden Police Department spokesman Thomas Geithner ruled out a terrorist or even Islamist attack, as agitators online are already claiming. It is still unclear whether the public prosecutor’s office will initiate investigations into those responsible. The Saxony Chamber of Engineers warns against speculation and hasty accusations. AfD transport politician Thomas Ladzinski in the city council, on the other hand, has already identified “ideologically-tainted” green transport policy as the culprit. The 200,000 euros for a cycle lane trial on the Carola Bridge would have been better spent on safety measures.

Jokes in Dresden see the accident as a macabre act of revenge by car fanatics for the controversial traffic experiments. Or they blame the Berlin traffic lights for everything once again. The backlog of bridge repairs in Germany is well known; 4,000 of the 28,000 motorway bridges alone need to be repaired. The same is true in Dresden; the legendary “Blue Wonder” of 1893 and the four-lane Nossen Bridge are at risk. The supposed boom town of Dresden, however, is stumbling from one budget freeze to the next and is facing precarious city budgets. The state capital will not be able to manage the reconstruction of the Carola Bridge on its own, warns Thomas Löser, a member of the Green Party’s state parliament and city councillor who was re-elected with a direct mandate. “I see financial support from the federal and state governments as essential,” he demands.