An important milestone for the long-awaited construction of the Rahmede Viaduct has been reached: on Thursday, 5 October 2023, the first sod was cut for the viaduct on the A45.

Dr Volker Wissing (Federal Minister for Digital and Transport), Dr Michael Güntner (Managing Director of Autobahn GmbH), Elfriede Sauerwein-Braksiek (Director of the Westfalen office of Autobahn GmbH) and Sebastian Wagemeyer (Mayor of the city of Lüdenscheid) joined the celebration on site.

Preparations for the construction have been underway since the demolition of the old defective bridge in May and the award for the bridge replacement to ARGE HABAU, Bickhardt Bau, MCE in early July. In the initial phase, we will carry out the design. Currently, we are developing the detailed and execution design of the 450 m bridge consisting of two partial structures.

The cleaning up from the demolition has been concluded, which allows initial works to be carried out, such as the creation of access roads, shoring of the excavation pits and construction of up to 70 m high bridge piers.

The first partial structure is expected to be completed by the summer of 2026, allowing traffic on this motorway segment to flow again in both directions.

In his speech, Dr Volker Wissing mentioned that further to the Rahmede Viaduct, three large bridges over the Rhine River (Leverkusen and Neuenkamp bridges and the Rader Viaduct) are also under construction. GRASSL engineers are currently or have been participating in all four of these projects.