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Herne (dpa / lnw) - A stress test on the ailing A43 bridge near Herne, which was closed this weekend, is intended to clarify whether cars will still be allowed to roll there in the future.
For a month now, the route between the Herne and Recklinghausen motorway junctions has only been approved for vehicles lighter than 3.5 tons due to the curved steel bridge.
Depending on the result of the upcoming tests, the bridge has to be closed to all traffic in the worst case until a new building has been built.
In order to get an exact picture of the condition of the bridge, a stress test will take place under controlled conditions from this Saturday on.
For this purpose, four trucks loaded with gravel with a total weight of 32 tons each are rolled onto the bridge and placed in different positions.
Sensors installed in the weeks before collect data and can show the smallest deviations in a model.
More tests will take place the following weekend to complete the picture.
In both cases, the route must remain closed for the entire weekend from Friday evening, announced the Autobahn GmbH.
Evaluable results of the tests and measurements will not be available until the end of June, it said.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210514-99-601206 / 2