Berlin Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing experienced his first surprise six days before he was even appointed Minister. On December 2, the federal highway company had to close the Rahmedetal bridge. It is one of a series of dams along the A45, one of the country’s most important north-south axes. A little later, the new Minister Wissing knew: The bridge is so dilapidated that a new one is needed.
The former state transport minister said later that he knew that the bridges were not in good condition. But then the FDP politician was “amazed at how dilapidated our motorway bridges are”. Everything should get better quickly.
Whether bridges, the rail network or at the airports: Nothing is running properly on Germany’s infrastructure anymore. And it’s not getting any better anytime soon.
“We currently count nine bridge tenders,” says the construction industry. Measured by the statements by Autobahn GmbH that they want to renovate 400 bridges a year in the future, that doesn’t seem like much. “We would therefore end up with far less than 100 tenders per year,” it says soberly. The numbers are sad. More has to happen.”
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Companies don’t want to be quoted as they depend on the drip from the public purse. But her frustration with the lack of orders is all the greater. In view of the increased construction costs, de facto less is being built anyway. And the draft budget for 2023 does not provide any remedy either: Similar to 2022, the motorway company should be able to invest 5.5 billion euros. For operation, administration and planning, the budget is just 50 million euros more than in 2022.
Industry: Costs for building bridges are increasing
Florian Eck, Managing Director of the German Transport Forum, sees this critically. “The increases in construction costs and raw material prices are not taken into account in the federal budget, nor are the expected higher wage agreements in the public sector,” he said. “The modernization goal is missed with the present draft budget.”
>>Read here: New chaos at Autobahn GmbH – now the state-owned company drives Peugeot
Rahmede is just one of tens of thousands of bridges in Germany that were built with prestressed concrete in the 1960s and 1970s and are now in danger of collapsing, eaten away by rust. Nationwide, 4,000 bridges are in a critical condition similar to the valley bridge near Rahmede and would have to be renovated quickly, according to federal statistics.
In view of the drama, Minister Wissing had invited to the “Bridge Summit” in March: the federal highway company, the construction industry, but also associations and approval authorities of the federal states were invited to put together a “package for the future”. The Parliamentary State Secretary Oliver Luksic (FDP) later reported to the Transport Committee of the German Bundestag: “The consensus was that maintenance measures must now be implemented consistently.” Nine measures should be used to better monitor bridges and plan and build them better in the future. So why is it still not progressing?
As it was said in the industry, in addition to the tough planning and approval procedures, there is one main problem: the lack of skilled workers at Autobahn GmbH. Change is hardly in sight, explains Ingo Rauhut, labor market expert at the Association of German Engineers (VDI). “Every civil engineer can choose between seven jobs on average nationwide,” he reports.
And the relationship between vacancies and unemployed civil engineers will continue to deteriorate. “In view of the extensive climate protection measures, the demand will continue to rise and the shortage of skilled workers will continue to worsen,” predicts Rauhut.
The number of students is stable. But there are still too few graduates compared to demand. The starting salaries of civil engineers were also slowly approaching those of other engineering professions. However, it will be correspondingly more difficult for a federal company to attract skilled workers. “The public sector cannot keep up with the private sector in terms of salaries or career opportunities.”
The motorway company has been managing the trunk roads instead of the federal states since 2021 and claims to have “more than 1500 engineers and planners”. Insiders say, however, it is “quantitatively and qualitatively insufficient staff”. The company is still developing “and some, especially former state officials, are leaving the Autobahn again”.
Digital construction as a great opportunity
Accordingly, a concerted campaign to renovate bridges is “difficult to implement with the available staff”. There is a lack of staff everywhere: in “planning, construction preparation and the client’s accompanying activities during construction”.
The great hope lies in digital construction: everyone involved in construction works together on a project on a platform, and artificial intelligence identifies errors in the process. This should ensure more efficiency. But this change takes courage and time. time that is missing. Large bridges on motorways, such as those in the seaport cities of Hamburg or Bremen, have to be renovated at short notice. Otherwise there is a risk of further full closures like in Rahmede, experts warn.
In view of the shortage of personnel, it was said in the construction industry, the motorway company initially no longer wanted to only tender for bridges that had already been planned. Rather, the construction companies should also submit designs and use them to plan the bridges at the same time. This is how the civil engineers of the private sector could be used, as it was said.
>>Read here: 4,000 motorway bridges are to be renewed by 2030
When asked, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Transport explained that Autobahn GmbH wanted to integrate the “innovative power of the construction industry”. Modernizing bridges has “very high priority”. In 2022, a quarter more bridges would be put out to tender than in the previous year. For 2023, “a further significant increase can be expected”. There is a construction program that “is currently being reviewed again by the experts from the individual branches”.
As early as January, when the demolition of the Rahmedetal Bridge was announced, the traffic expert from the environmental association BUND, Jens Hilgenberg, had a suggestion: He called on Minister Wissing to stop all new construction projects and to reserve the existing, limited planning capacities to bridges and roads to sanitize. “This would be a serious commitment,” he said.
But the Minister of Transport does not plan to do this. There is a small consolation for the residents on the detour routes near Rahmede and for all those who will be affected by future bridge closures: the federal government will pay them new windows and fans in the future with the recently amended Federal Highway Act so that they protect themselves from the noise of the detoured traffic be able. Meanwhile, Minister Wissing remained optimistic: “We are doing everything we can to plan the construction of the Rahmede viaduct on the A45 quickly and effectively.”
More: Wissing versus Lemke: New argument about the combustion engine off