Remainder of Dresden's Carola Bridge cannot be saved

The Carola Bridge in Dresden, which partially collapsed three months ago, must be completely demolished. "The damage is so severe that it is not possible to put the still-standing bridges A and B back into operation," the city announced on Wednesday regarding the latest findings of scientific investigations into their condition. It is now clear that a replacement is "urgently needed".

According to the report by independent bridge expert Steffen Marx, the cause of the collapse of span C was "hydrogen-induced stress corrosion cracking", which, in conjunction with material fatigue caused by the traffic load, led to the failure of numerous tendons. The corrosion damage already occurred during the bridge construction, it said.

Collapse not foreseeable - legal requirements met

The city commissioned the professor at the Institute of Concrete and Masonry Structures at TU Dresden to investigate the cause of the collapse and the condition of the remaining bridge. Experts from all over Germany are involved in the analyses in order to obtain well-founded results quickly.

According to the city hall, the experts found that "a reliable prediction of the collapse was not possible using the usual methods" and did not see any negligence on the part of those responsible.

On the night of 11 September, around 100 meters of the still unrenovated western section of Bridge C collapsed unexpectedly. A few days later, the first debris was removed, and since the beginning of October, the demolition of train C of the now closed important inner-city traffic artery across the river has been underway - and shipping has been interrupted.