The 1965 bridge is gone. The second half of its replacement is now rising on the same ground.
Die Autobahn GmbH is building the second of two parallel cable-stayed structures carrying the A1 across the Rhine at Leverkusen, each taking one direction of traffic. The SEH Engineering and HOCHTIEF Infrastructure consortium won the contract in July 2023 at roughly 426 million euros, and site work started in spring 2025 once demolition of the old crossing cleared the alignment.
Project Scope
Each structure runs 689 metres end to end with a 280-metre main span and a deck more than 34 metres wide. The first structure, carrying traffic toward Trier, opened on 4 February 2024. Demolition of the 1965 bridge ran through 2024 and 2025, and steel superstructure erection on the second structure is working toward closure and a planned release in 2027. Some reporting puts it at summer 2028.
Leonhardt, Andrae und Partner handled approval and execution design. Plauen Stahl Technologie and ZSB Zwickauer Sonderstahlbau are fabricating structural steel, with Max Boegl on civil works.
The bridge is one piece of the wider A-bei-LEV programme widening the A1 to eight lanes through Leverkusen. Figures in the hundreds of millions and above circulate for that programme; the 426 million euros here is the second-structure contract, not the corridor total.
Why It Matters
The original crossing became a national embarrassment. Stress-corrosion cracking was found in its steel box girder, and from 2012 lorries over 3.5 tonnes were banned outright, with a physical barrier system installed to enforce it on a route that had been carrying something like 120,000 vehicles a day. Freight rerouted across the region for more than a decade.
That makes Leverkusen the reference case for staged replace-in-place of a major motorway river crossing. Traffic runs on the finished half while the second one is built beside it, which means the two halves have to be dimensionally compatible years apart, and the demolition of the old structure has to happen between them without dropping anything on a live Rhine shipping lane.
Germany has a long list of bridges in similar condition. This is the template being written for them.
Project Team & Details
| Owner / Client | Die Autobahn GmbH des Bundes, Niederlassung Rheinland |
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| Consultants | Leonhardt, Andrae und Partner / LAP Consult (Structural Design) |
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| General Contractor | SEH Engineering GmbH / HOCHTIEF Infrastructure GmbH consortium |
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| Major Subcontractors | Plauen Stahl Technologie (Structural Steelwork)
ZSB Zwickauer Sonderstahlbau (Structural Steelwork)
Max Boegl (Civil Works) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Bid-Build |
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| Funding Source | Public (Federal) |
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