Renewal of the 'Waschmuhltalbridge' - The use of sliding planes in bridge construction

摘要

Renewal of the Waschmuhltalbridge - The use of sliding planes in bridge construction The A6 motorway is one of the most important east-west traffic routes in southern Germany and is frequented by more than 70.000 vehicles per day. In order to meet current and future requirements, the A6 near Kaiserslautern is currently being expanded to six lanes. Situated within the expanded section the Waschmuhltalbridge is one of the few large and still widely unchanged bridges originating from the age of the Reichsautobahn. It was built in the years 1935 - 1937 and is under monumental protection. Hence the engineering task was to preserve the two historic rows of sandstone arches and to enhance them with a construction that provides sufficient space for the new roadway. Any damages to the historic structure due to restraint effects had to be reliably ruled out. For this purpose, a sliding plane was carried out between historic structure and superstructure. Analytical approaches show that restraint effects can be considerably reduced in this way, even if the influence of inevitable evenness tolerances in the sliding plane is taken into account. For the execution of the sliding plane specific requirements concerning friction properties and evenness have been formulated. Compliance with these requirements has been ensured and documented with a tailor-made quality assurance system.