At the invitation of Straßen.NRW, South Westphalia regional branch, this year's bridge construction excursion took place on 05.06.2019. As in the 2018/2019 winter semester, the destination was the Rinsdorf and Rälsbach viaducts south of Siegen, which are being demolished and replaced by new structures as part of the A45 expansion project.
The existing Rinsdorf viaduct dates back to 1967 and only has one superstructure for both directions of travel. The students were informed in detail about the planned procedure for the replacement construction and the current status of the work. At present, the 485.5 m long superstructure of the northern section, which is to carry traffic in the direction of Dortmund in future, is being built next to the existing structure using the incremental launching method. The photo on the left shows the steel trough of the superstructure, designed as a steel composite structure, during the shifting process.
The photo on the right shows the current status of work on the future northern section of the Rälsbach viaduct. The superstructure is being built as a two-cell box girder cross-section in prestressed concrete construction in sections on stationary shoring.
