Skip to main content

Video captures nocturnal bridge demolition in Germany’s Ruhr area

November 17, 2014
It was a 24-hour job to demolish the bridge called On Leiterchen that crossed over the A43 in the industrial Ruhr area of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Traffic was stopped in both directions between junctions Recklinghausen-Hochlarmark and Recklinghause-Herten.

Before the serious work of nibbling away at the concrete structure could start, a 50cm layer of sand was spread across the entire motorway to protect the pavement from excavator machine tracks and falling concrete. The bridge eventually jack-knifed in on itself.

Equipment used included Cat 336D and E excavators, three Hitachi ZX350 and one ZX470 excavators and two Mercedes Benz Arocs dump trucks.

Related Content

  • Korean bridge construction poses challenges
    February 23, 2012
    On South Korea's southern coast, an innovative highway sea crossing is providing many engineering challenges
  • Korean bridge construction poses challenges
    April 5, 2012
    On South Korea's southern coast, an innovative highway sea crossing is providing many engineering challenges The new Busan-Geoje crosses from South Korea's second city to its biggest island and is slightly shorter than the 12km of the country's famous Incheon project. In addition the main cable stay bridge for the Busan-Geoje project has a 475m span rather than the 800m of the Incheon central span. However the 8.2km Busan-Geoje project faces perhaps greater technical challenges and also includes a second b
  • Rising to the challenge
    July 18, 2012
    Visualise today's concept of a major commercial traffic corridor in the western United States. A roadway responsible for delivering goods to Arizona, Nevada and Utah, that also connects Mexico to the United States to Canada through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). What springs to mind? A multi-lane highway carrying thousands of vehicles a day past cities at speeds up to 113km/hour, while egress ramps make sure vehicles get safely to city streets and their final destination. This is not the c
  • Challenging bridge demolition
    March 2, 2012
    DEMOLITION and blasting experts Philipp Halter of Berlin, Germany, faced a challenging job: in just 48 hours it had to demolish the southern section of the Spandau Dam Bridge crossing the A 100. The efficient interaction of Atlas Copco hydraulic breakers and hydraulic CombiCutters, mounted on seven Volvo excavators, is said to have played a crucial role after following a carefully planned schedule. During Friday night a bed of sand was placed under the bridge to allow the girders and reinforcements torn dow