📋 Tender Overview
Status: in planning
The Dortmund-Ems Canal (DEK) is a 223-kilometer-long waterway between the city port of Dortmund in North Rhine-Westphalia and Papenburg in Lower Saxony. A number of bridges cross the canal. This also applies to the double-track railway overpass (EÜ) on the Löhne – Rheine line that went into operation in 1913. The EÜ crosses the canal between Rodde and Hörstel. Since it has reached the end of its technical useful life and can no longer be repaired, it will be renewed.
The new bridge will have a span of 117 meters instead of the previous 90 meters and will be around 16 meters wide instead of eleven. In addition, the structure will be around one meter higher than before at around twelve meters.
For the conversion of the bridge, the new abutments are being built under the protection of auxiliary bridges. The new superstructures are manufactured at assembly sites on the edge of the Dortmund-Ems canal. It is then planned to lift out the truss superstructure of the existing bridge and transport it away by water. The new superstructures are also brought from the assembly sites to the bridge by water and lifted into place.
The project is divided into two phases: the preparatory work includes the electrotechnical conversion and the preparation of a track-changing operation. This guarantees that – apart from short-term exceptions – a track always remains passable and railway operations can be maintained. During the main work, the bridges and culverts will be renewed and put back into operation. The entire project has been coordinated with the monument protection authority. Before the railway overpass is rebuilt, the lock of the Dortmund-Ems Canal will first be renewed by the West German Canals Waterways and Shipping Office.
