After a new prestressing steel fracture on the still-standing section of Dresden's Carola Bridge, shipping has once again been completely suspended. The state capital announced that individual controlled passages can be permitted again from Monday at the earliest if there is no further breakage.
The break was discovered on Thursday night in the area above the Elbe pier on the Old Town side, and according to a spokesperson, the closure has been in place ever since.
In the past week, several prestressing steel breaks were discovered in the two bridge sections that were still standing. Since then, they have been at acute risk of collapse. The release for commercial shipping traffic with advance notification has since been withdrawn, and urgent passages were once again possible after notification from the beginning of the week.
The fractures are caused by so-called stress corrosion cracking, which is also considered to be the main cause of the collapse of bridge span C last September. Numerous prestressing steel links are installed in the bridge's concrete. If too many of them crack, this has an impact on the load-bearing capacity.
The city has now commissioned a company to demolish the still-standing bridges A and B. The work is due to start soon and preparations are underway.
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