Ölhafen Bridge inaugurated in Raunheim

The Ölhafen Bridge in Raunheim will be opened with a pubic opening ceremony in Mai 2013. The three mayors of the city partnership of Raunheim, Rüsselsheim and Kelsterbach, the architect Prof. Michael Schumacher, and Norbert Reißfelder of SchüßlerPlan Ingenieurgesellschaft will present the project to the public.

The new whitebridge is an elegant, curved structure. It spans the 70 m wide entrance to the Ölhafen in Raunheim with a spiralling access ramp. The location of the bridge so close to the harbour’s storage tanks was of particular concern at the design stage. The oil depot is used for the transfer and storage of highly flammable substances. For this reason, the bridge had to be designed to prevent people on the bridge gaining access to the passing tankers, or at least to make it difficult.

In view of these exacting circumstances, a solution was developed that not only fulfils all the safety requirements, but also takes into account the specific location of the bridge on the River Main. The objective was to emphasize the bridge’s leisure use, and above all to provide unobstructed river views from the bridge despite all the safety issues.

This sculptural bridge design stems from Frankfurt architects schneider+schumacher. The clients for the bridge appointed Schüssler-Plan as structural engineers.

The bridge was awarded with the Brückenbaupreis of Landesinitiative +Baukultur in Hesse in October 2013.