New Railway Bridge at Lindwurmstrasse

Railway bridge Lindwurmstrasse is located in the south of the city of Munich at the border of the districts Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt and Sendling. It holds in total six railway tracks, amongst them the so-called Munich southern ring, an important transport route between Munich West (incl. central station) and Munich East. The new construction of the more than 100 years old bridge is part of a comprehensive modernisation programme of the Munich railway hub.

As the outdated, historic bridge cannot be renovate, it can only be passed because of an emergency support erected in 2017. Since March of this year, construction works are ongoing to demolish the old bridge and replace it by a new structure. The new bridge, inspired by the old one, is a 2-span rolled concrete girder structure on abutments with shallow foundations and pier walls. The individual span widths amount to around 17 metres.

In the context of the new construction, the road is lowered by around 1.1 metres making space for the passage of a newly planned tramway line. This requires an around 100-metre-long groundwater trough, which will be built subsequently. Moreover, the bridge will be widened by around 5 metres. Despite all these changes, the new structure maintains the historic character of the bridge – the striking railings are currently refurbished and will again be assembled later on.

Currently, demolition works are taking place. Notable technical challenges are created by the surroundings and the resulting complex construction processes. The crossing tunnel tubes of underground trains U3/U6 and a connecting tunnel to the shunting yard Theresienwiese are in direct vicinity. The design has to take into consideration that some of the neighbouring buildings are under monument protection and that, despite the construction works, tramway traffic on Lindwurmstrasse has to be maintained.
Construction implementation also requires a series of five temporary bridges comprising in total 10 temporary bridges with total span widths of over 40 metres.