New link road brings relief to Gera-Liebschwitz

Since mid-August 2015, the new link road of the L1082n has been providing relief to the Gera district of Liebschwitz in Germany from through traffic. The centrepiece of the local bypass is a 317-metre long viaduct over the White Elster and two DB lines. This is a nine-span prestressed concrete structure, whose superstructure was designed as a two-web T-beam with variable design height and spans of 26.0 metres to 45.5 metres.

The manufacture of the prestressed superstructure was carried out in four construction phases on support scaffolding. To comply with the structural clearance over the DB line in the Saalfeld direction, the first construction section was manufactured in a raised position and then lowered into the planned location after application of the prestress.

In all support axes, oval individual supports with hammerheads are arranged so that the flood plains of the White Elster are only slightly affected. Due to the difficult ground conditions, a deep foundation of the supports and abutments, on up to 45-metre long large bored piles with sleeve tubes and annulus space compression, was designed. The entire supporting structure, the bearings and the expansion joints of the viaduct were also calculated for earthquake loads, which must be taken into consideration in the region around Gera.

KREBS+KIEFER performed the structural design verification of the viaduct on behalf of the Road Construction Office of East Thuringia. The processing in our Erfurt office was taken over by Dr.-Ing. Hans-Gerd Lindlar as the competent Verification Engineer and Dipl.-Ing. Toralf Zeißler.

Due to the high commitment of all those involved in the project, the construction project could be completed about eight months earlier than planned.