Flughafenbrücke (A44) over the Rhine

The airport bridge is a motorway bridge on the A44 over the Rhine near Düsseldorf and Meerbusch. It was opened in 2002 and, together with the two motorway tunnels on the left bank of the Rhine, is also known as the Ilverich Rhine Crossing.A cable-stayed bridge with a span of 287.5 m would have required pylons around 110 m high, but these were not permitted as an obstacle to air traffic due to the proximity to the Düsseldorf airport that gave the bridge its name. It therefore has two particularly low (34 meters) longitudinally positioned V-shaped supports in the middle between the two lanes, which are connected to each other at the tips by crossbars and look like triangles standing on their tips. This creates a cable arrangement that is somewhat close to the usual one.The bridge has six lanes, two hard shoulders and combined footpaths and cycle paths on both sides. The latter can be reached via entrances on both banks of the Rhine.The bridge was completed in 2002 after four years of construction as part of the closing of the gap in the A 44 motorway between Meerbusch (Ilverich) on the left bank of the Rhine and the north of Düsseldorf (Lohausen) on the right bank of the Rhine. The bridge provides a connection to the motorways to Mönchengladbach, Aachen, Belgium and the Netherlands. Among other things, it improved the connection of the airport, the trade fair and the former Rheinstadion and its successor to the areas on the left bank of the Rhine. It also contributed and continues to contribute to relieving the pressure on two bridges upstream (Theodor Heuss Bridge and Rheinknie Bridge) and one bridge downstream (Krefeld-Uerdinger Bridge between Krefeld-Uerdingen and Duisburg-Mündelheim). The Langst-Kaiserswerth Rhine ferry, located about 3 km downstream, lost importance due to the airport bridge; since 2002 it has been used almost exclusively by day trippers. The construction of the airport bridge was controversial for years because of the route through the Ilvericher Altrheinschlinge.
The name "Niederrheinbrücke" (Lower Rhine Bridge), which was requested by the majority of the population as part of a competition, was not approved by the Federal Ministry of Transport, which was responsible for naming the bridge. So the bridge was named after the nearby Düsseldorf airport. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flughafenbr%C3%BCcke

Nice view of the Rhine bridge.

The bridge is very impressive and can also be crossed by pedestrians and cyclists. Here a path leads up to the bridge.