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Hamburg (dpa) - An unusually long full closure of the A7 threatens to significantly affect traffic in and around Hamburg towards the end of the week.
The federal project company Deges wants to completely block the autobahn from Thursday evening (10:00 p.m.) to Monday morning (5:00 a.m.) between Hamburg-Volkspark and -Waltershof.
For the construction of the Altona noise protection tunnel, three important road bridges over the motorway have to be demolished.
During the 79-hour closure, only the structure for one lane direction is to be demolished.
On the remaining half of the bridge, traffic should continue to roll over the motorway.
The A7 north of the Elbe Tunnel will be widened from six to eight lanes by the end of 2028 and at the same time "covered" for 2.2 kilometers in order to protect residents from noise and to reconnect the districts on both sides of the motorway.
Traffic in the direction of Flensburg / Kiel and Heide as well as Hanover is directly affected by the closure.
The 79-hour blockage is unavoidable because of the span of the bridges and the complicated procedure, said project manager Christian Rohde.
He admitted: "We are well aware of the fact that by having a Friday with us, we will of course create significantly greater traffic chaos."
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The installation of temporary bridges, as in the construction of the Schnelsen and Stellingen noise protection tunnels, is not possible because of the width of the motorway in Altona and because of two junctions - Othmarschen and Bahrenfeld.
That is why the bridges are to be replaced by previously constructed tunnel elements before the actual tunnel tubes are built.
During the entire construction period, the east-west traffic on the autobahn is to be maintained, even if only in one lane in each direction of travel.
Even during the demolition work, the traffic on Bahrenfelder Chaussee, Osdorfer Weg and Behringstrasse should flow past the construction sites.
"Friday is the big day of the year, and we will experience significant congestion there," emphasized Deges spokesman Christian Merl.
He urged motorists to leave their vehicle where possible on the day.
The route via the A1, A21 and B205 between the Horster triangle south of Hamburg and the Neumünster-Süd junction is fully available as a supraregional diversion.
The spokeswoman for Autobahn GmbH Nord, Karina Fischer, drew attention to other alternative options: The route over the Elbe bridges near Geesthacht, which can be reached via the A39 (Hamburg-Lüneburg) and B404 / A21, as well as for drivers from the west of Schleswig-Holstein the A23 to Pinneberg-Nord and the Westring-L103 to the western part of Hamburg.
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The full closure of the A7 will be extended a little on Friday evening.
Then the motorway to the north will already be closed from Hamburg-Heimfeld.
The background is planned work to expand the motorway between the Elbe tunnel and Heimfeld.
These should be done «in the shadow» of the actual full closure.
The section of the motorway through the port area, standing on stilts, will also be expanded to include eight lanes.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210314-99-813764 / 2
Information on the noise protection cover Altona
Press release from 9.3.21