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Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The economy in the Rhineland demands a faster and better coordinated renovation of the ailing bridges over the Rhine.

"The list of problem children has become longer in 2020," said the President of the Lower Rhine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Burkhard Landers, on Wednesday in Düsseldorf.

After the A1 bridge near Leverkusen and the A40 bridge in Duisburg, the A46 bridge in Düsseldorf is now threatening to "bend its knees".

Landers presented a study carried out by the IHK in the Rhineland.

In it, the condition of the bridges is rated as “insufficient” on average.

The total of 28 road and rail bridges over the Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia are on average 60 years old.

In the neighboring country of the Netherlands, however, the bridges have an average of 50 years under their belt.

The municipal Rhine bridges are particularly old, with an average of 63 years.

Business is skeptical that since the beginning of the year, another authority, the federal motorway company, has been responsible for the Rhine bridges.

In order to accelerate planning and redevelopment, the IHKs demand, among other things, that all Rhine bridges be transferred to a special federal fund that is administered by a company.

It must be provided with sufficient money in order to be able to finance maintenance, basic renovation and capacity expansion on a permanent basis.

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"We have to get a lot faster," said Landers.

Planning and construction times for bridges have not become shorter, but longer in recent years.

Germany should take an example from Italy.

There, after the bridge collapsed in Genoa, the new building was finished in just two years.

"That must also be our claim."

Traffic control when bridges are closed must also be improved, demanded Landers.

For every Rhine bridge "a kind of stress test" is necessary.

"You can only react quickly if you know what to do in an emergency."

The reaction to the fire of a truck under a bridge over the A40 in Mülheim shows that NRW has made progress on this point.

A spokesman for the NRW Ministry of Transport pointed out that there had been a master plan for the construction of federal trunk roads since 2018.

In addition, since the change of government to black and yellow, NRW has brought 593 million euros more federal funds to NRW than planned, because more projects have been brought to construction maturity more quickly.

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The SPD parliamentary group called the demands from the economy a "call for help".

The state government lacks the overall view of the bridge problem in North Rhine-Westphalia, said the transport policy spokesman for the parliamentary group, Carsten Löcker.

Breakdowns like the one at the Leverkusen Rhine bridge should not be repeated.

IHK study Rheinbrücken