The construction of the Danube bridge on the Linz west ring (A26) is halfway through. The last breakthrough for the tunnel system was made on Tuesday. Tunnel sponsor Bettina Stelzer-Wögerer, in the presence of her husband, Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP), the provincial councilor Günther Steinkellner (FPÖ), the Linz city councilor Dietmar Prammer (SPÖ), the Asfinag board member Hartwig Hufnagl and others, solved the blasting in the “Urfahrwänd”. northern bank of the Danube.
Since May 2020, work has been going on for the tunnels north and south of the Danube, which will later house the entrances and exits of the bridge to the state roads Rohrbacher Straße (B127) and Eferdinger Straße (B129). The finished tunnel system has a length of 3.2 kilometers. The largest so-called “tunnel cross-section” of the entire future Asfinag motorway network was created for the Danube North junction in the mountain, creating a cavity with an area of 400 square meters and a span of 33 meters, according to the press documents.
The concreting work for the inner shell of the tunnel should be completed by summer 2023. After the electrical equipment has been installed, most of the tunnel system, together with the suspension bridge, will be opened to traffic in autumn 2024. The part of the complex on the southern side towards the city remains reserved for miners and construction equipment. From there, the tunnel will later continue for 2.4 kilometers to the station, where the motorway will merge into the Waldeggstraße underground route.
The two anchor blocks high above the Danube are ready for the 306 meter long and 25 meter wide suspension bridge. The suspension cables that carry the bridge weight of 13,000 tons are currently being stretched across the Danube. Up to two 500 meter long ropes will be installed per week until April. From autumn, 25 by 15 meter steel elements for the assembly of the bridge will be transported by ship, lifted, attached to the suspension cables and welded together.
After decades of tug-of-war and a premature groundbreaking in the 2015 state election campaign, construction of the slimmed-down West Ring began in 2019. The first stage of the A26 costs around 260 million euros, half each for the tunnel and half for the bridge. Overall, the A26 costs around 743 million euros, with the construction costs increasing by 100 million euros afterwards. Asfinag bears the majority of the costs at 85 percent, the state of Upper Austria contributes ten percent and the city of Linz five percent.