St. Lorenzbrücke

A bow on the horizon.

The St. Lorenz bridge has connected the two districts of St. Lorenz Nord and St. Lorenz Süd in Lübeck since 1907. The bridge crosses the Hamburg-Lübeck-Travemünde railway line, an important freight route towards Scandinavia, which was considerably widened by Deutsche Bahn in the course of electrification. The old girder bridge was too low and had to be replaced.

The special feature of the new three-section bridge construction is the architecturally-designed bowstring bridge with a span of over 100 metres. It connects with new pre-stressed concrete superstructures at its north and south ends. The bows were executed in an extremely shallow profile with a maximum height of 10 metres. This, as well as minimising the time of blockades on the railway line, was one of the special engineering challenges.

The bowstring bridge was erected on the southern side, alongside the new four-arched pre-stressed concrete bridge section, on a formwork carriage. Both the demolition of the existing bridge and the erection of the new foundations and substructure took place parallel to this. Thus the bowstring bridge could be transported into its final position immediately after completion.

And the result looks really good. Today the St. Lorenz bridge fits perfectly into its environment. It almost seems to float high above the tracks of the modernised railway line.