Bridge near Strasbourg
The bridge seen from the north.
The
Pierre Pflimlin Bridge
(
French
:
Pont Pierre Pflimlin
) is a 957-metre (3,140 ft) long motorway
cantilever bridge
over the river
Rhine
, with a main span measuring 205 metres (673 ft). It connects Germany and France, at
Kehl
and
Strasbourg
. It is named after
Pierre Pflimlin
, a former
French prime minister
, and was opened in 2002. It was funded by
France
,
Germany
and the
European Union
.
Construction
[
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]
The bridge being built over the
Rhine
south of
Strasbourg
.
Planned for several decades, it was built during the late 1990s and early 2000s by the construction companies
Bilfinger Berger
and
Max Fruh
.
[1]
- The central segments (located over the river) were built in
balanced cantilever
, cast-in-place fashion, extending outwards from each of the two pylon islands constructed in the stream. A concrete volume of 18.000 m3, 760 t of prestressing steel, and 2.700 t of reinforcing steel were used in total.
[2]
- The pylons were constructed on
caissons
floated into place and secured with 50 m deep foundation piles, and are designed to withstand earthquakes and ship impacts.
- The approach bridge on the French side was built in segments, and then pushed horizontally onto the approach pylons, while the approach bridge section on the German side was built by another German company and was cast in place with standard formwork.
- The hollow construction of all bridge segments has both
pre-stressed
and post-stressed components, realized by the French specialist construction company
Freyssinet
. The formwork was provided by
PERI
.
The funding for its construction was provided 55.5% by France, 38.6% by Germany and 5.9% by the
European Union
.
[3]
Function
[
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]
The bridge's main purpose is to reduce pressure on the only other Rhine bridge in the vicinity, the
Europe bridge
(
French
:
Pont de l'Europe
or
German
:
Europabrucke
), also located at
Strasbourg
-
Kehl
, to the north. The Pierre Pflimlin Bridge links the motorway
Lauterbourg
?
Strasbourg
?
Saint-Louis
?
Basle
from France to the A5
Hamburg
?
Frankfurt
?
Basel
motorway in Germany.
[3]
It has two lanes to carry cars and other motor vehicles and two lanes reserved for pedestrian and cycle traffic.
Due to the
Schengen Agreement
, there are no border controls on the bridge, despite it spanning the French?German border.
One of the piers, a
caisson
floated to the site and anchored with deep
foundation piles
.
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
48°29′29″N
7°46′11″E
/
48.491400°N 7.769740°E
/
48.491400; 7.769740