No injuries or fatalities have apparently occurred as a result of the collapse. The police assume it was an accident, a spokesperson said, and so far there are no indications of external influence.
The Carolabrücke is an important traffic artery of the city. Every day, a large number of cars, trams, and cyclists travel over the structure, which is one of the four Elbe bridges in the city. Pedestrians are also present there.
Fire Department: Crack formed at bridge head
The Dresden transportation authorities stated that a tram was not on the bridge at the time. Therefore, neither passengers nor vehicles were harmed. Trams operate on the bridge throughout the night. According to the situation center, the pedestrian and bicycle path as well as the tram tracks have been affected.
According to the fire department, the length of the damaged area is around 100 meters. A crack about one meter long formed at the bridge head on the old town side. Additionally, district heating pipes are damaged. “Currently, district heating is down across the entire city area,” the fire department announced in the morning. Due to the leaking water, parts of the terrace bank are completely underwater.
Further collapse is expected
It is currently unclear how parts of the bridge detached around 3:00 AM. “We expect that more parts of the bridge could collapse,” a fire department spokesperson said on Wednesday at the scene. A drone team has been deployed to assess the extent of the damage, it was further stated.
The bridge was built in the 1960s by the GDR regime. The cause of the partial collapse at night could have been corrosion. It is suspected that a significant chloride influx occurred during GDR times, said Holger Kalbe, head of the bridge and engineering structures department in Dresden, at a hastily organized press conference on Wednesday in Dresden.
Condition was “not foreseeable”
Although a chloride removal had already been carried out in the past, Kalbe noted, there is a utility pole at the demolition site, so there may have been a strong chloride influx there. However, these are only assumptions that must be verified, said the department head.
The city has been dealing with the risk posed by the bridge for many years, Kalbe stated. Therefore, two of the three bridge spans have been renovated in recent years. The now-collapsed bridge span, which the tram used, was scheduled for renovation in 2025. The condition being “so bad” was not foreseeable, Kalbe added.