Murrtalviaduct, Road viaduct in Backnang, Germany.
The Murrtalviaduct is a road bridge carrying the B 14 over the Murr valley west of Backnang. The current structure, opened in 2011, is 419 m long and 27 m high, built entirely in reinforced concrete. It has two successive pairs of arches with spans of 107.57 m, followed by ramp bridges of 91.88 m and 111.58 m. The deck is a continuous two-web plate girder 1.20 m deep, and the bridge is semi-integral, with bearings only at the abutments.
An earlier viaduct stood at this location starting in 1937, serving as a bypass for Backnang on the Reichsstrasse 14. The original structure was destroyed in 1945 and later replaced with a modern rebuild.
The viaduct carries the B14 over the Murr valley west of Backnang. Its 2011 span was designed by Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner and deliberately echoes the shape of the earlier bridge. The 1937–1938 structure was built by the Stuttgart firm Baresel and counted among Germany's largest reinforced-concrete arch bridges of its day.
The viaduct carries the B 14 over the Murr valley west of Backnang. The second carriageway has been under construction since April 2023, with completion planned for 2025 and opening together with the four-lane expansion to the Backnang-West junction in 2027. Until then, traffic runs on the first bridge, opened on 22 August 2011.
The 2011 bridge is a semi-integral structure: the deck is monolithically connected to the ramp piers, and bearings exist only at the two abutments. Some piers had to be founded 2 to 3 metres deeper to gain the height that gives them the flexibility to absorb deck movements.
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