Residents claim to have heard a bang when the bridge bearings of the southern structure of the Salzbachtal Bridge gave way on Friday afternoon and reinforced concrete slammed onto reinforced concrete.

Drone images show centimeter-sized cracks in the bridge and one pillar.

Alexander Pilz from the Darmstadt branch of Autobahn GmbH, which has been responsible for all motorways since the beginning of the year and thus also for the 300-meter-long Salzbachtal Bridge, does not want to rule out a failure of the pillar and thus a partial collapse of the bridge.

After heavy concrete chunks had fallen on the lane of Mainzer Straße (B 263), the police closed both bridge structures on Friday: both the south bridge, which is already intended for the imminent demolition, and the north bridge, over which until Friday there were three lanes with alternating traffic all traffic between Wiesbaden and Frankfurt was handled.

The commuters can at least still hope that the north bridge, which is constantly monitored by sensors, will not be affected by the accident on the parallel south bridge.

Autobahn GmbH wants to have clarity by the middle or end of the week.

Explosion no longer ruled out

The federal highway 263 running under the Salzbachtalbrücke, the main arterial road of the state capital towards the south, will have to remain closed for weeks or months. Because their clearance would first require the ailing half of the southern bridge to be secured - which is technically difficult or impossible - or its demolition. This demolition should have been carried out between September and June next year anyway. Whether, how and when it can now take place under the changed conditions must also first be checked. According to the Autobahn-Gesellschaft, the “complete damage assessment” has started. Conceptual considerations for the demolition of the southern bridge structure have begun. This can be a case for excavator operators, but also for demolition experts. In any case, a demolition is no longer ruled out.But the concept will take a long time, it is said as an advance warning for drivers and rail travelers. A quick solution is not to be expected. Therefore one wants to find solutions to avoid “a possible traffic blackout”.

But this heart attack does not only threaten car traffic.

The main feeder tracks to Wiesbaden Central Station run under the motorway bridge.

Since the weekend, this has been almost completely suspended from rail traffic.

It is to be checked whether in the foreseeable future at least single-track traffic can be made possible under the bridge, but there will only be clarity on this in days or weeks.

The alternative options are manageable

The alternative options are very manageable for all commuters from Wiesbaden and the region. The railway company Vias uses buses for the Rheingau line between Rüdesheim and Frankfurt in the section between the main train station and Biebrich. According to the expectations of the traffic experts, motorists will want to move through the city en masse via Biebricher Allee, Second Ring and Kasteler Strasse. The Mainzer Ring with the Weisenauer Brücke will also have to cope with a significantly increased traffic load because the route from Rheinhessen to the Rhine-Main region still leads over the Schiersteiner Brücke (A 643), but then ends at the Biebrich exit of the A 66 is. Therefore, many motorists will take the Mainzer Ring.

The Wiesbaden city police want to be present at the intersections with as many employees as possible from Monday, so that the flow of traffic does not completely collapse. Long traffic jams can be expected, at least in the first few days after the closure. Wiesbaden's Lord Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende (SPD) expects "very massive" consequences: "The city has got into a traffic emergency through no fault of its own."