Bahnhof Bridge, Lübeck
Completion of first construction phase

Lübeck’s Bahnhofsbrücke, a seven-span composite steel-concrete bridge on Fackenburger Alley, was opened to traffic in 1907. The bridge was built with a length of 74.5 m and carried two traffic lanes in each direction. After 115 years of intensive use it was necessary to replace the bridge with a new structure that can withstand current traffic loads and volumes. Before the reconstruction project commenced, 40,000 motor vehicles were crossing the bridge each day, along with 1,200 cyclists and twelve bus routes. The new superstructure will be 8.5 m wider than the existing one, and will accommodate a new dedicated bus lane in one direction (towards the city centre) and an additional right-turn lane in the opposite direction. Because of the nine electrified tracks that pass under the bridge, the construction work required to be organised on the basis of long-planned track closures. In order for rail traffic to be largely maintained throughout the construction phase, individual train tracks had to be closed at different times. The lifting in of massive girders for the new superstructure, the concreting work and the installation of technical systems were partly carried out at night. On behalf of the City of Lübeck, Inros Lackner was responsible for the preliminary design, design development, tender-stage design and detailed design, plus site management. The design work was carried out using the BIM approach.

The first construction phase was completed on October 31, 2022, enabling two lanes of traffic to be routed over the new part of the structure, which was built on temporary substructures in an offset position. When the rest of the superstructure has been constructed, the two superstructure parts will be rigidly concreted in place at one point of one abutment, defining the bridge’s fixed point.