Finkenwerder Bridge: HPA reaches important milestone

On Saturday evening, August 12, 2023, the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) reached an important milestone in the construction of the new Finkenwerder Bridge. At around 11:35 p.m., the southern superstructure of the Finkenwerder Bridge was successfully pushed into place by means of a large 600-ton crawler crane. With a length of around 60 meters, a width of 18 meters and an insertion weight of 621 tons, the new tied arch bridge will in future carry three lanes of Finkenwerder Strasse over the electrified tracks of the port railroad.

The new construction had become necessary because the old Finkenwerder Bridge was in a very poor structural condition due, among other things, to damage to the concrete caused by an alkali-silica reaction (also known colloquially as "concrete cancer").

"The push-in operation was very well prepared and planned in advance by all project participants and took a total of 17 hours," says Tomas Buhr, head of demand management at the HPA. "Before the actual bridge insertion, the crane was erected within 57 hours. The delivery of crane booms, ballast material and crane attachments took place in a total of 40 transports."

After execution of the road construction, the newly built structure is scheduled to be opened to traffic at the end of 2023. This will be followed by the dismantling of the old northern bridge structure and its new construction.