Rahmede Viaduct, Highway bridge in Lüdenscheid, Germany.

Rahmede Viaduct was a highway bridge that carried Bundesautobahn 45 over a valley near the city of Lüdenscheid. The structure measured 453 meters long, stood 75 meters above the valley floor, and supported a roadway about 32 meters wide.

The bridge opened in 1968 during the expansion of Germany's motorway system and connected communities across North Rhine-Westphalia for decades. Structural issues led to its permanent closure in December 2021 before it was brought down through a controlled demolition in May 2023.

The name Rahmede comes from the valley and stream the bridge crossed between Lüdenscheid-Nord and Lüdenscheid. Its 1968 steel-composite deck carried about 64,000 vehicles a day by the late 2010s, 13,000 of them lorries. After the December 2021 closure, diverted traffic of some 20,000 vehicles a day, including 6,000 lorries, filled the surrounding roads, and a citizens' initiative campaigned for a temporary four-lane replacement.

The original bridge was demolished on 7 May 2023; a replacement structure is being built in two halves. The first half opened in December 2025, carrying two lanes in each direction on narrowed lanes, and the second half is due in autumn 2026. Drivers should expect a changed alignment and reduced lane widths until then.

The 1960s planners predicted 25,000 vehicles a day by 1980; by the late 2010s the bridge carried 64,000 daily, including 13,000 lorries. Around 9,000 tonnes of steel went into the structure, which weighed about 17,000 tonnes in total.