[D] German Autobahns • Deutsche Autobahnen

[ChrisZwolle]

Construction officially began today at the Jackerath Interchange for the new A44 between the Jackerath and Holz motorway interchanges, south of the city of Mönchengladbach. The new A44 is a reconstruction of the old A44 which was torn down in 2006 for the expansion of the Garzweiler open mine pit. The new A44 will be constructed slightly to the east. The cost - which is € 100 million - will be paid by the RWE energy giant. The "A44n" will be 7.2 kilometers long with 2x3 lanes, to handle the traffic once A61 is removed for mining operations. The A46 along the south side of Mönchengladbach will also be widened to 2x3 lanes.

[x-type]

Originally Posted by ChrisZwolle

May 30th 2012

A 2.2 kilometer section of Autobahn A1 opened between Kelberg and Gerolstein in the Eifel region in western Germany.

http://www.volksfreund.de/nachrichte...art751,3174039

the most famous gap in the world has became shorter. but is still resisting

[mappero]

Why this gap was never end up ? Political or eco reason?

[Deadeye Reloaded]

Environmental reasons.

Here is a map showing the next two sections which are planned to be built in the next years. However the closure of the whole gap (30km) will take a loooong time.


1.) Blankenheim <---> Lommersdorf
Length: 6km
Costs: 50 millions €uro

2.) Lommersdorf <---> Adenau
Length: 8,7km
Costs: 130 millions €uro

Source

____________________________________________________________________

In other news:

Another section of the A8 is now being widenend to 2x3 lanes.

Section: Hohenstadt <---> Ulm-West
Length: 22km
Construction time: 2012 - 2018
Costs: 200 millions €uro

[Coccodrillo]

Originally Posted by x-type

the most famous gap in the world has became shorter. but is still resisting

Tehre is a "gap" also near the French border (because A1 isn't linked with the French motorway network)...

[CNGL]

When I saw the "Adenau" thing about A1 I thought the autobahn would go across the Nordschliefe (The "old" Nürburgring), but now I see it would run West of it.

[Des]

I drove through Germany last week, from Arnheim (NL) to Köln, Köln to München, München to Bochum, Bochum to Köln and Köln to Arnheim (NL). I've driven tru Germany quite a lot in recent years but jeez there's a lot of baustellen at the moment...

Some of my findings:

A3 Köln-Ost is still a big bottle neck but the ausbau to 2x4 progresses well
A3 Frankfurt-Wurzburg is partly upgraded from 2x2 to 2x3 but large parts are still under development. The new 2x3 bits are really nice
A3 Wurzburg-Nurnberg has some baustelle as well especially near Wurzburg and the A7 intersection but its mostly still 2x2
A9 Nurnberg-Munich great although at peak holiday times it struggles to cope with the traffic

On the way back I drove a different route via A6 and A7 from Nurnberg because there was an accident on the A3 between Nurnberg and Wurzburg.

A6 Nurnberg-A7 Intersection is also one big baustelle but it doesn't look like an ausbau, I could be wrong. 2x2 is clearly not enough for all the truck traffic heading west from Poland / Czech Republic

A7 A6 Intersection-Wurzburg: 2x2 but quiet and beautiful highway through the hills

A45 Frankfurt-Dortmund: Nightmare, huge baustelle every 10km including all bridges, bad road surface and mostly 2x2 with some 2x3 bits up the hills.

A40 Bochum-West -Essen: 2x3 ausbau should be ready next year, part of it is already done and a good relief after the A45

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by Des

A3 Köln-Ost is still a big bottle neck but the ausbau to 2x4 progresses well

This project is extremely slow because they work at a few kilometers at the time. They've been working nearly non-stop on the eastern part of Köln for the last 9 years. The planned widening of the last section AK Leverkusen - AS Leverkusen is planned after 2015, which means it's likely completed in 2018-2019 or so, which means the widening of A3 will take 15+ years.

[panda80]

I spend this Easter holiday in Germany and France so it's time for some pictures of German autobahns.

First, A4 between Dresden and Kirchheimer Dreieck (includes some pics from inside Dresden and also from A17):

Inside Dresden:
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We enter A17 motorway:
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[panda80]

On A17:
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Dreieck Dresden West, from here we enter A4:
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[panda80]

On A4, which is 3+3 till Jena:

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Dreieck Nossen, from here starts A14 towards Leipzig and Magdeburg:
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[panda80]

We continue on A4, it was Sunday morning, that's why traffic is so scarce:

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It was very cold, we even see a little bit of snow on these hills:

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[panda80]

A pleasure to drive:
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After Chemnitz Ost, Gera appears on the distance sign:
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Interesting stretch of motorway:
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[panda80]

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Kreuz Chemnitz, intersection between A4 and A72:
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We stay on A4:
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[panda80]

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The motorway twists its way through the small Thuringian hills:
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[threo2k]

I must say that German autobahns are absolutely the best in the world! No doubt about that. Not just the roads, but also the nature matchs together with the roads!

I have drived on all the autobahns in germany but not the A17 from Drezden to Prague. I hope to do this in the near future!

[Road_UK]

Yes, parts of the A4 between Dresden and Erfurt has concrete plate pavement, like a lot of Eastern European countries have, and even parts of the connecting Polish A4, which is brand new is concrete plated. As for the German side: I wonder if it's a souvenir of the old DDR, because normally it is not the style of Germany to use road surface like that.

[ChrisZwolle]

I don't think there is much pre-1990 pavement left on Autobahnen in the former DDR. Most were either renovated or widened, such as A2, A4 and A9. Apparently only a part of A11 still has old concrete. Things were different in the late 1990's, I remember driving A13 from Berlin to Dresden around 2000 and several parts were in very bad condition, similar to Polish A4 west of Wroclaw before 2005/2006.

[Road_UK]

Hmm, I think Germany could have done so much better with the current A4 in the east, as well as the A2 from former border to Berlin, which has the same surface as the A4.. Same with the Polish A4 from border to Wroclaw. But I'm glad the A4 and A2 are exceptions, in comparison with the rest of the eastern German network. A14 and A38 are wonderful roads!

Edit: I remember roadworks on the A14 years ago. It had the same concrete plates, but they were all being removed, and replaced with proper road surface.

[panda80]

Even if concrete, I found the motorway surface quite good. There were lots of cars doing +180km/h, so no special problems with the pavement.