Start of construction for the Netratal Bridge at Sontra/Eschwege

The Netratal Bridge is part of the new construction project of the A44 from Kassel to Herleshausen and crosses above the Netratal and the B7. In June 2017, the initial foundations for the piers and abutments were cast in concrete in accordance with the plans provided by KREBS+KIEFER.

The construction of the bridge was carried out by the construction company Hoch-, Tief- und Industriebau GmbH (HTI Greußen) on behalf of DEGES. For this construction project, KREBS+KIEFER carried out on behalf of HTI the implementation planning and prepared the construction drawings (phases 4 and 5 of the structural engineering).

The Netratal Bridge involves a longitudinally pre-stressed, double-webbed T-beam with a construction height of 1.60 m (parallel-girdered superstructure with no haunches) and supporting widths of 25 + 6 x 35 + 29 = 264 m and a width between the rails of 15.60 m.

The bridge structure was constructed as an 8-field structure with two separate superstructures. The resulting slenderness of the superstructure is between 15.6 (25 m supporting width) and 21.9 (35 m supporting width).

In the area of the outer abutments and the first pier axle, the bridge is supported on deformation slip bearings and on the remaining pier axles on deformation bearings (“floating bearings”).
The 8-field structure is built in four stages with three coupling joints on a supporting framework. Due to the clearance requirements around the B7, the first construction section must be implemented at a raised level. The necessary degree of elevation is over 1 metre.

The abutments are accessible box abutments with an intermediate ceiling. The piers are arranged radially to the longitudinal axle and have an elliptic cross-section with a uniform taper of 50:1. The substructures are designed with a surface foundation.