One percent of the bridges in Switzerland last year had components in critical condition. There are about forty bridges throughout Switzerland. The Federal Traffic Agency, Astra, confirmed a corresponding report from the "SonntagsBlick" on Sunday at the request of the agency Keystone-SDA. An example of a bridge that needs to be renovated is the connecting bridge between Fully and Saxon in Unterwallis.
The costs will double
In Switzerland, according to the NZZ, I am Sunday »(the article is subject to a levy) the need for renovation in the coming years of more than 4,500 motorway bridges will increase, because more than the half of the bridges is older than 35 years. The newspaper quotes Ueli Angst, professor at the Institute for Building Materials at ETH Zürich. The expert expects that the costs of bridge maintenance will double or even quadruple in the next 30 years.
The bridge from the 70s leads from the cantonal road via the Rhône and the SBB line to the A9 motorway. In the 260-meter-long structure several concrete pillars are subject to corrosion damage and water has entered the structure
According to the Astra Network State Report, which will be published in September, the bridge will need to be rehabilitated urgently for an estimated 255,000 francs 2020
Good general situation
Astra director Jürg Röthlisberger describes the situation of the Swiss road network in general as good for the newspaper. Redesign of critical structures such as bridges or tunnels in recent years would have borne fruit. "
" If a construction was in an alarming state, for example if the load-bearing elements of the bridge were damaged, we would immediately suspend them and keep their redevelopment at hand. ", Röthlisberger emphasized
However, there are still 16 percent of the technical structures that have not yet been checked, but according to Astra they have no safety-relevant function and their failure would have no serious consequences.
The vast majority of the Swiss motorway bridges were built in the sixties and seventies, so the need for refurbishment should increase in the coming years, but according to Röthlisberger, Switzerland is well positioned with its street financing model through earmarked taxes
A question of maintenance
Röthlisberger stated that the Italians were technically at the same level as the Swiss at the collapse of the bridge in Genoa, "There is nothing that Swiss engineers are technically better than their counterparts in the neighboring country," says the Astra boss.
The bridge in Genoa is old and designed as they would not build today That is why it is mainly a matter of maintenance. Such buildings should be adapted to the new standards and should be improved, says Röthlisberger.
(SDA)
Source link