From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Federal motorway in Germany
Bundesautobahn 6
(translates from
German
as
Federal Motorway 6
, short form
Autobahn 6
, abbreviated as
BAB 6
or
A 6
), also known as
Via Carolina
[1]
(between
Nuremberg
and the Czech border continuing to
Prague
-
by Czech motorway D5
) is a 477 km (296.4 mi) long German
autobahn
. It starts at the
French
border near
Saarbrucken
in the west and ends at the
Czech
border near
Waidhaus
in the east.
The first plans for the A 6 were laid out in 1935; construction on several parts began in 1938. In 1940, construction near
Mannheim
was stopped when the bridge across the
Rhine
collapsed, killing many workers. A new bridge, the
Theodor Heuss Bridge (Frankenthal)
, was opened in 1953. Other parts of the A 6 were completed in 1941. A part near
Kaiserslautern
was used as an airstrip by the
Luftwaffe
during
World War II
. After the war, it was taken over by US forces and became the
Ramstein Air Base
, while the A 6 was re-built south of the air base.
Weinsberg
intersection of the
A 6
and
A 81
. The A 6 runs from bottom-left to top-right.
In the 1960s, construction was continued. One new section cut through the
Hockenheimring
, requiring a major redesign of the race track which resulted in the construction of the
Motodrom
stadium.
Much like its southern counterpart, the
A 8
, the A 6 is relatively old and has received little upgrading, making it difficult for it to handle today's traffic. The section around
Mannheim
is currently being widened and modernised from a four-lane to a six-lane motorway requiring the construction of a new bridge over the River
Neckar
.
The Autobahn 6 crosses the Kocher valley between
Heilbronn
and Nuremberg via the
Kocher
viaduct (German: Kochertalbrucke) near
Schwabisch Hall
. With its maximum height of 185 m (607 ft) above the valley bottom, it is the highest viaduct in Germany.
The direct motorway connection between Prague and
Paris
was completed when the last missing section between junction
Amberg
-Ost and interchange
Oberpfalzer Wald
was inaugurated on 10 September 2008.
References
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External links
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Major routes
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Regional
routes
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Local routes
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Planned or
former routes
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See also
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- * original plan: number is used by another route now
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