NRW motorway A42: ten days closure for bridge construction from June 2025!

NRW motorway A42: ten days closure for bridge construction from June 2025!

The A42 motorway will be completely closed in June 2025 for ten days to build a new pipe bridge. This emerges from a message from the city and transport committee of the city of Bottrop, which was published on December 3, 2024. The blocking affects the section between Essen-Nord and Bottrop-Süd and is necessary because the existing, dilapidated bridge is not designed for future traffic needs. This bridge currently enables the transport of oil to the BP subsidiary Ruhr oil and must be replaced due to the planned six-lane expansion of the motorway section. According to Autobahn GmbH, an increase in traffic volume is expected in the next five years, which is why the construction of the new bridge is considered urgently necessary, as ruHR24.de

This full blocking follows the recent closure of the A42 bridge over the Rhein-Herne Canal, which was temporarily blocked in December 2023 due to considerable defects. Transport expert Prof. Dr. Roman Suthold from the ADAC found that the over 50-year-old bridge is in need of renovation and requires an accelerated maintenance of the over 90 bridges in North Rhine-Westphalia, which would have to be repaired annually in order to avoid further decay. In this context, he criticized the defective communication of Autobahn GmbH, which did not inform the affected cities in time about the closures. For trucks over 3.5 tons, the bridge remains closed, which requires extensive diversions, such as ADAC