City rail bridge with brains

connecting people

The first construction phase of city rail line U81 connects Düsseldorf airport with the city rail network. A win–win situation: the business location is strengthened, the quality of life improved due to the extension of the public transportation network. Score! In less than ten minutes you can reach the Düsseldorf football stadium – one of the venues of the 2024 European Football Championship – and Messe Düsseldorf from Germany’s third-busiest passenger airport.

paving the way

The central part of the first construction phase is the bridge over the Nordstern transport hub. It will be a semi-integral bridge – a welded steel superstructure with a truss at the top clamped into the abutments and freely moveable supports on the intermediate piers. The lateral movement of the superstructure due to thermal expansion creates a ‘breathing bridge’ – the first railway bridge of its kind.

creating construction culture

A sensor-based structural health monitoring system records structural reactions such as deformations, strains, settlements and temperatures and transmits them in real time. Digitalisation is making bridges smart. The Nordstern Bridge deals with the complex four-level traffic intersection in a dynamic and intelligent way. The superstructure diverts the gaze from the chaos of the traffic to this pinnacle of modern bridge construction.