A partially collapsed bridge in Dresden has become a tragic symbol of the state of public infrastructure in Germany. The country has been driving on wear and tear for too long.
Demolition work has begun on the collapsed section of the Carolabrücke in Dresden.
The image with which the Germans awoke on Wednesday morning will go down in history: All media showed the Carolabrücke, which spans the Elbe in the center of Dresden and partially collapsed shortly after three in the morning. Just like that. Fortunately, no one was injured. Nevertheless, the collapse is hardly surpassed in embarrassment for a rich industrial country that justifiably prides itself on its engineers.
Lack of Maintenance
Although the exact cause is still being investigated, experts agree: The incident is a particularly stark example of the dilapidated state of German infrastructure. Numerous studies and reports have shown for years that Germany must invest significantly more in the maintenance of its infrastructure, stated the Federal Chamber of Engineers in response to the collapse. The condition of many bridges is particularly alarming, as they already pose a significant safety risk due to lack of maintenance and reinforcement.
In Germany, there are about 40,000 bridges in the federal road network (motorways and federal roads), over 60,000 municipal bridges, and more than 25,000 railway bridges. The Carolabrücke is part of the municipal works and is the responsibility of the city of Dresden. It was built during the GDR era and commissioned in 1971. Parts of it have already been renovated, and the renovation of the now-collapsed bridge section was planned for 2025.
Rahmede Valley Bridge Blown Up
However, dilapidated bridges exist not only in the east and not only at the municipal level. The Rahmede valley bridge, which stood as part of the A45 motorway in the west and was under the responsibility of the federally-owned Autobahn GmbH, was a previous symbol of the misery. It was unexpectedly closed in December 2021 due to severe damage and was blown up in May 2023. Currently, a replacement is being built. Until the new bridge is completed, traffic is struggling through the nearby district town of Lüdenscheid in North Rhine-Westphalia.
As elegant as it is dilapidated: the Rahmede Valley Bridge in February 2022, after closure but before demolition.
At least it was possible to close it in time, like several other bridges, especially since bridges in Germany are among the most carefully monitored structures. According to the latest statistics from the Federal Highway Research Institute, a research facility of the Ministry of Transport, almost one-twentieth of the approximately 40,000 bridges in the federal road network were in poor condition as of March 2024: For 4 percent, the condition was “insufficient,” and for another 0.4 percent, it was even “inadequate.”
Living Off Substance
Against this background, infrastructure has become a factor that, in surveys of companies and in international rankings, is no longer considered a location advantage but rather a disadvantage for Germany.
How could it come to this? The main cause is considered to be that the country has lived off its substance for far too long and invested too little. For twenty years, there has been a significantly lower investment rate from the state than all European partners, said Michael Hüther, head of the employer-related Institute of the German Economy (IW), after the bridge collapse to Tagesschau. Moreover, many infrastructures were built between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s based on different forecasts for traffic volume and with different construction technologies. However, over the last 30 years, road traffic has grown by 40 percent. There has been no response to this.
Particularly many motorway bridges were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fifty years later, even with good maintenance, a complete renovation would be due, said IW transport expert Thomas Puls last year to the NZZ. However, good maintenance has not been provided. Although the Ampel government has launched a bridge modernization program aiming to modernize around 4,000 motorway bridges within 10 years, the trend of deterioration has not yet been stopped, and only 220 bridges are scheduled for renovation this year, criticized Hüther.
It Is Not Just About Money
One reason for the backlog is tight budgets for infrastructure investments at all levels, which may also be due to the wrong prioritization in budgets. Although Finance Minister Christian Lindner always emphasizes that the government has increased funds for investments, Hüther counters that this is merely a nominal increase, and due to rising construction costs, nothing has improved in real terms.
In a joint study published in May, the IW and the trade union-affiliated Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research estimated the additional investment needs for public infrastructure, including road, rail, and energy networks as well as schools, at 600 billion euros for the next ten years. This amount includes 39 billion for federal roads and 177 billion for municipal infrastructure (mainly schools and roads).
According to the study, this need could be financed through a credit-financed infrastructure fund that would not be counted against the debt brake, like the “special fund” for the Bundeswehr, or a golden rule that would allow the state to take out loans equal to investments. Politically, both are currently unrealistic, and economically they are controversial.
Endless Procedures
However, even with significant additional funds, the backlog could not be overcome overnight. Another major hurdle is a lack of civil engineers and other skilled workers, whether in the authorities or in the construction industry.
Additionally, infrastructure projects are also suffering from rampant bureaucracy. At least last year, a law was passed that is meant to accelerate and simplify procedures in the transport sector. It results, among other things, in the exemption from the approval requirement and an environmental impact assessment even if an existing bridge is simultaneously expanded as part of the renovation. This is intended to halve the planning and approval period. Previously, the renovation or expansion of a bridge took an incredible five to 18 years.
You can follow Berlin economic correspondent René Höltschi on the platforms X and Linkedin.