Ice sheet scandal: Leverkusen Bridge closed for hours!

Ice sheet scandal: Leverkusen Bridge closed for hours!

On January 10, 2025 at 10:26 a.m., the police were alerted to falling sheets of ice on the A1 motorway bridge in Leverkusen. Immediate measures followed: the bridge was closed in both directions to ensure traffic safety. The Cologne fire department stripped the bridge pylons using a drone from Autobahn GmbH and confirmed the presence of approximately 10 square meters of ice that had begun to fall due to rising temperatures. Sheets of ice up to 1.5 cm thick fell onto the road, posing a significant danger to traffic.

Icy situation requires rescue helicopter

In order to remove the threatening ice masses, the rescue helicopter Christoph 3 was alerted to circle over the bridge pylons and remove the ice from the roof surface. However, this measure was not completely successful and a telescopic mast platform was requested from the RWE Neurath factory fire department, which can be raised up to 90 meters. Only with this special vehicle were the emergency services able to successfully reach the endangered area and clear it of the ice. The operation lasted several hours in total, which also led to a significant traffic jam on the highway, where over 100,000 vehicles pass through the bridge every day zeit.de reported.

During the operations there were already minor accidents due to falling ice, but fortunately there were no injuries. Initially, the right-hand lanes and the bicycle paths were closed until a comprehensive risk analysis could be carried out by the fire department and the highway maintenance department. Other streets, such as the North Bridge in Bonn, were also affected at times. Through the laborious manual removal of the ice slabs with a cherry picker, the bridge was finally reopened and traffic can now flow unhindered again fireworld.at explained.