Demolition of the Carola Bridge in Dresden follows original concept

The demolition of the destroyed section of Dresden's Carola Bridge is now continuing to follow the original concept. In the course of next week, there will be enough space to remove the debris lying in the Elbe, the city announced on request. Starting next week, an excavator will drive onto it and remove it step by step from the middle of the river to the Altstädter Ufer. "Once this has been done, demolition work will begin on the two bridge sections hanging diagonally into the water on the Neustadt side."

The demolition was resumed a good two weeks ago. According to the town hall, the work is "progressing well". The remains of strand C on the Neustadt side have now been removed and excavators are currently breaking up the rubble. "A mobile crushing plant makes the rubble very fine so that it can be easily removed and ultimately recycled." The material should be completely removed by the end of the week.

Original demolition concept reviewed

The original demolition concept was briefly called into question due to the excessively high water level on the Neustadt side caused by the bridge debris lying in the stream, which was washed over. Now the work is being carried out as planned from the Neustadt side, "continuously dynamically adapted" to the Elbe level.

The Carola Bridge consisted of three traffic lines. On the night of 11 September, the western section C with the streetcar line collapsed over a length of around 100 meters for reasons that are still unknown. This section collapsed into the river - and later another piece of debris during the demolition work. In a race against time, emergency services from the fire department and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), supported by the German Armed Forces and special technology, removed the remains of the destroyed bridge section on the Neustadt side that were already in danger of collapsing in the first few days - just in time for the flood.