Herr Hübner, dass es mit der Infrastruktur nicht zum Besten steht in Deutschland, wussten die meisten Menschen ja schon. Aber dass Brücken einfach so einstürzen, hat viele dann doch geschockt. Müssen wir uns jetzt auch noch daran gewöhnen?
Nein, das glaube ich nicht. Aber wir werden sicher in nächster Zeit von immer mehr Brückensperrungen hören. Viele Bauwerke sind einfach marode, und die Verantwortlichen werden jetzt noch sensibler darauf schauen müssen.
Das ist eine Aussage, die so nicht stimmt und darüber hinaus auch noch unglücklich ist. Brücken wie die in Dresden müssen in regelmäßigen Abständen begutachtet werden, von außen, bei Bedarf auch mal gewisse Bauteile von innen. Das wurde hier wahrscheinlich nicht ausreichend gemacht.
Die Brücke in Dresden wurde in den Siebzigerjahren gebaut. Lag es vielleicht an der schlechten Technik in der DDR?
Ganz sicher nicht. Die alten Bauwerke im Osten haben die gleiche Standfestigkeit wie die im Westen. Aber: Die Infrastruktur aus den Siebzigerjahren ist hier wie dort nicht für die hohen Verkehrslasten von heute gemacht. Auch im Westen wurden damals oft zu schlanke Querschnitte gebaut, die Betondeckung ist zu gering, Wasser dringt ein, und der Stahl rostet. Wir dürfen uns nichts vormachen, viele Brücken sind an der Altersgrenze. Nehmen Sie die Sauerlandlinie Autobahn A 45 oder die A 7 von Fulda Richtung Würzburg: Dort muss jedes Bauwerk erneuert werden. Jedes!
Transport Minister Wissing has announced that he will renovate 400 bridges a year.
But his bridge booster doesn’t fire. We are currently only halfway there. And as it stands today, we’ll be building even less starting next year. Because, above all, there is a lack of planning.
Because of the money, simply because of the money. The federal government does not provide enough funds for planning and construction. You can see this every day: When there is no money, bridges are reduced, lanes are reduced and traffic is directed to where the bridge can still carry the highest loads. Then there are often just signs and barges standing around for years without anything improving.
In Dresden, money apparently didn’t play a role.
Maybe, but that is definitely the case with federal bridges. And with the urgent renovation, we have also seen that the federally owned Autobahn GmbH has to postpone awarding projects and has asked construction companies in individual cases that they should submit their invoices later because there is not enough money available in the financial year.
Construction investments are declining
We still have a budget gap. In addition, the federal government has at least kept investments in highways stable in the 2024 budget, even though it is investing significantly more money in the railways.
In real terms, construction investments are also declining this year. The problem is always the same. During budget negotiations, investments are always only discussed at the end, while subsidies and consumptive spending take up an infinite volume.
As I said, a lot more money is flowing into the railways.
It’s clear that everyone is interested in more goods being transported by rail, including the construction industry. But even if we put so much more money into the railways, we will not avoid the collapse of the road infrastructure. Almost three quarters of freight traffic takes place on roads. If we doubled rail freight traffic, that would take just ten percent of traffic off the road. This shows how dramatic the disproportion is.
What do you think about the plans to merge Autobahn GmbH with Toll Collect?
That would at least be progress. The truck toll used to go exclusively into the road budget, but unfortunately that is no longer the case. Now the money is also being used to finance rail. If we could make Autobahn GmbH eligible for credit through the merger, that would be a good thing. But there are other options. We should, for example, think further about the Federal Transport Minister’s idea for an infrastructure fund, where public-private partnerships at project level could also make sense in order to mobilize additional private capital in addition to the budget.
You mean PPP projects? Are they still there?
We only know three.
“Economic nonsense”
Since the Federal Audit Office sharply criticized PPP projects, the issue has apparently been resolved. His criticism was clear: the federal government is simply paying too much for these projects.
I have my own opinion on this criticism.
The Federal Audit Office looks closely at the financing costs, but this is only a small part of the total costs. What is certain is that all highway projects to date have been completed within budget and earlier. A real economic benefit that arises when PPP makes sense in individual cases. I’ll give you a practical example: The federal government had put a thirty-kilometer stretch of motorway out to tender as a PPP project. Construction time three years, 27 years operation. However, even the last remaining offer from the construction industry was too expensive for the federal government. Now the route is advertised conventionally in many individual sections. We assume that the construction will now take 30 years. That’s economic nonsense. But to be clear: We don’t want PPP to come to any conclusion. A further development of the models, with a fair distribution of risks, also for medium-sized companies, is central to me. If it is worth it, PPP should be allowed to be one option among many.
Could the construction industry actually build more?
Of course, the bridge builders have been suffering from a lack of orders for years. And companies don’t know what to do next. How are they supposed to plan when the federal government announces that it will renovate or build 400 bridges a year, but then only implements half of them. The construction industry is not that flexible, especially when politicians always say that we should build up more capacity. But they also have to be paid for! You can’t just switch from road construction to bridge construction. We could also boost our domestic economy by investing in infrastructure. One euro invested in construction generates two and a half times as much economic output.
More money generates more economic growth, which is the argument that many industries are using today in Berlin.
Even if there may be good reasons for this, it cannot be the case that the state sponsors individual industries with billions but does not provide enough money for its own infrastructure, i.e. for its own silverware. And then there is talk about not taking on any more debt. But destroying our infrastructure also means incurring debt – namely to our children. Plus, it’s not just about money. That is the main factor, but we also need less bureaucracy and more freedom
Let’s take the bridges. As a construction company, we know best how to build them. When the administration in Germany advertises a service, it does so in great detail; there can be 3,000 items or more that we are supposed to deliver in exactly the same way. Every screw, every piece of steel is listed individually. This is an enormous effort. Instead of simply saying we need a six-lane bridge over the A45, offer me this. There are endless ways to build bridges: you can push entire bridges, work with prefabricated parts, or just push scaffolding. Every company can judge this better than the administration.
As a citizen, I’m interested in the administration not buying crap with all due respect, so there should be quality standards.
Totally justified. A project like this also needs to be supervised, but in partnership, at eye level. And the builder could still reject our offer. There is some progress in the tenders, I don’t want to hide that, but the bureaucracy is still far too big. Just take the digital building application. It was actually supposed to come in early 2024, but is still in the experimental stage.
The traffic light also inherited many problems. . .
True, it has at least kept the investment ramp-up at the same level. But the infrastructure is in a much worse condition than we all probably thought many years ago. There simply needs to be a lot more investment here.
You’re right, I was skeptical and look at these megaprojects with great respect. But the Riedbahn is going really well from both the company and the railway side. The railway has provided competent staff around the clock. This is essential so that construction progresses quickly and someone on site can always make decisions. I strongly hope that this will be the blueprint for further high-performance corridors, because, and I stand by this: the task is highly demanding and requires a lot of personnel. But as we all know, you grow with your tasks.
Which ones are next?
The Hamburg-Berlin route is now out for tender, and we would like it to be the same there. It is important that the railway communicates with the industry at an early stage. Construction companies sometimes have to prepare for such mega-projects for a year or two, have machines in stock and plan employees, all of which takes time. I have been in close contact with railway board member Berthold Huber about this ever since. We agree on the goal of moving forward in partnership.
Federal Quality Association: Many motorway bridges are in questionable condition
Viele Autobahnbrücken in Deutschland sind nach einer Datenauswertung von Bauexperten in einem bedenklichen Zustand. 43 Autobahnbrücken mit einer Länge von mehr als 50 Metern hätten einen „ungenügenden“ Zustand, heißt es in einer der Deutschen Presse-Agentur vorliegenden Analyse der Bundesgütegemeinschaft Instandsetzung von Betonbauwerken. Das bedeute, die Standsicherheit, die Verkehrssicherheit oder beides seien erheblich beeinträchtigt oder nicht mehr gegeben.
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Die Politik und die Autobahngesellschaft des Bundes müssten jetzt handeln, so Marco Götze, Vorsitzender der Bundesgütegemeinschaft. „Gerade bei Autobahnbrücken dürfen wir uns nicht darauf verlassen, dass das nächste Unglück so glimpflich verläuft wie der Teileinsturz der Carolabrücke in Dresden.“
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Daten von rund 3800 Brücken
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Die Bundesgütegemeinschaft hat nach eigenen Angaben von 3.786 Autobahnbrücken mit mindestens 50 Meter Länge diejenigen identifiziert, die deutschlandweit die schlechtesten Zustandsnoten haben. Die Untersuchung stützte sich auf die regelmäßig von der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen veröffentlichte Brückenstatistik.
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Demnach stehen von den 100 am schlechtesten bewerteten Brücken mit einer Länge von mindestens 50 Metern die meisten in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Bayern und Baden-Württemberg. Diese Länder zählen mit Niedersachsen zu den Bundesländern mit den meisten Autobahnbrücken insgesamt.
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Die Bewertung basiert auf Zustandsnoten, die akute Schäden und Abnutzungserscheinungen angebe. Zudem gibt es den sogenannten Traglastindex, der die Leistungsfähigkeit der Brücke gemessen an Alter und Material bewerte.
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Jede zehnte Brücke „nicht ausreichend“
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Von den 3.786 Autobahnbrücken mit einer Mindestlänge von 50 Metern hätten 1.382 die Zustandsbewertung „noch ausreichend“ bekommen, bei 378 werde der Bauwerkszustand als „nicht ausreichend“. Jede fünfte von Deutschlands 100 am stärksten angeschlagenen Autobahnbrücken stehe in NRW.
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Bundesverkehrsminister Volker Wissing (FDP) hatte im März 2022 ein Maßnahmenpaket für eine schnellere Brückenmodernisierung vorgelegt. Bei vielen Brücken hat die intensive Beanspruchung in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten Spuren hinterlassen, vor allem durch den zunehmenden Schwerverkehr. In den kommenden Jahren sollen 400 Brücken pro Jahr saniert werden. Überregional wurde etwa die Autobahnbrücke Rahmede an der Sauerlandlinie (A45) bekannt. Sie wurde wegen schwerer Schäden gesperrt und wurde inzwischen gesprengt. Geplant ist ein Neubau. (dpa)
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