Highway 14 will be completely closed starting Friday evening (8:00 p.m.) due to the demolition of a damaged bridge near Grimma in the Leipzig district. Motorists will have to take a detour until 5:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Traffic will be diverted from the Mutzschen and Grimma interchanges, according to Autobahn GmbH.
The structure being demolished is the so-called “21Ü2” overpass, a bridge spanning the highway between the towns of Grottewitz and Würschwitz. It has been closed to traffic since last October. A special inspection had revealed that the structure was in critical condition. Cracks had formed or widened.
According to Autobahn GmbH, the demolition will cost around 700,000 euros. A new overpass is scheduled to be built by 2028 at a cost of around three million euros.
Along Highway 14 between Leipzig and Nossen, there are a total of eleven overpasses constructed using precast prestressed concrete, built between 1969 and 1972. They contain Hennigsdorf prestressing steel, which played a role in the collapse of the Carolabrücke in Dresden. The bridges are being monitored. Only the structure that is now being demolished had been found to be in a critical condition.
