A7 closed for bridge demolitions for more than three days

In the coming week there is a risk of massive traffic problems in Hamburg, because from Thursday evening (November 17th) the A7 around the future tunnel in Altona will be completely closed - including the Elbe tunnel. The closure of the motorway between the Waltershof and Volkspark junctions will last 79 hours.

Nothing goes in either direction until 5 a.m. on Monday morning (November 21). From Friday evening (November 18th) the closure will be extended from and to Heimfeld in the south.

The reason for the complete closure is the demolition of three bridges over the motorway. The bridge at Kielkamp is demolished. Since Wednesday it has not been passable for motorists. When the tunnel is closed next week, it will be replaced by a temporary steel bridge that will only allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross the motorway until the tunnel in Altona is completed.

A little further south, the second part of the Bahrenfelder Chaussee bridge will be demolished. During the last 79-hour closure in March 2021, the northern part of the bridge was broken away, now it's hitting the southern part. As with the work around a year and a half ago, Karina Fischer from the Autobahn GmbH des Bundes and Christian Rohde from the Deges, as project managers, are again expecting the biggest problems on this bridge.

In 2021, the work on the Bahrenfelder Bridge almost exceeded the schedule because it was built with significantly more steel than the planners had assumed. The last parts of the bridge half were only removed after the closure.

A major project is also waiting for the construction workers on the last of the three bridges scheduled for demolition, Osdorfer Weg. It is the largest of the three bridges that will be demolished during the full closure. Alone, the asphalt that has to be removed is 1011 square meters.

During the closure, the next parts for the future tunnel tube will also be laid on the Behringstraße bridge. Actually, that should have happened during the two 55-hour closures in the summer. At that time, however, problems with the subsoil had stopped the construction work.

In the meantime, the problems have been resolved and a different method has been chosen for the foundation of the tunnel center wall, explained Deges project manager Rohde. Therefore, the 37 ready lying parts for the tunnel ceiling could now be placed. In the spring, the construction work on Behringstraße should finally be so far advanced that traffic can already drive on what will later be the tunnel. The southern half of the bridge will then be demolished.

There will also be further construction work during the 79 hours on and in the Elbtunnel as well as on the southern major construction sites in the port and on the Elbmarsch elevated road. Because the work can be brought forward here, another closure of the A7 planned for December can be omitted.

Fischer and Rohde know that this is no great consolation for the car and truck drivers who will have to put up with long detours or be stuck in traffic next weekend. They have been providing information about the upcoming closure throughout Germany and Denmark since the beginning of the year. “Friday gives us a headache,” admits Fischer. Because on Fridays there is still a lot of commuter traffic and significantly more delivery traffic than on the weekends.

In March 2021, the 79-hour closure hardly caused any traffic disruption - but there was hardly any traffic due to the pandemic. You can't build on that this time, says Fischer. She appealed to everyone who wants to go to Hamburg via the A7 not to do this if possible, i.e. either to register their home office for Friday, to switch to public transport - and to abandon all unnecessary journeys. Long-distance diversions have been set up for long-distance traffic.

The construction of the Altona noise protection tunnel – known in Hamburg as the Altona cover – started in 2020 with preparatory measures. Since the 1980s there have been calls to cover parts of the A7 to protect residents from noise.

With the decision to expand the A7 in Hamburg to eight lanes, there was also money for additional noise protection. That led to covers in Schnelsen, Stellingen and now in Altona. The 2,230 meter long tunnel is scheduled for completion in 2028.