Hagen (dpa / lnw) - The neighboring valley bridges Brunsbecke and Kattenohl on the Autobahn 45 near Hagen will be closed from Saturday morning to Tuesday evening in the direction of Dortmund. During this time, the structures will be checked regularly and traffic will be diverted, as the Westphalia branch of Autobahn GmbH announced. For this reason, the bridges will also be closed in one direction on the following three weekends.
There had already been closures there last weekend. According to Autobahn GmbH, a comprehensive main inspection is due for bridges every six years. The inspectors have to use scaffolding or so-called bridge inspection devices to get close to the structure. There are simpler tests at shorter intervals.
Like several other A45 bridges, the Brunsbecke and Kattenohl viaducts will be replaced by new structures in the coming years. The buildings from the 1970s can no longer cope with the enormous increase in traffic. The Brunsbecke Bridge is constructed in a similar way to the dilapidated Rahmede viaduct a good ten kilometers to the south, which had to be blown up and rebuilt due to severe damage. During investigations in the summer at the Brunsbecke Viaduct, however, no abnormalities were found.
