Raschplatzhochstraße, Elevated road and bridge in Mitte district, Hanover, Germany.
Raschplatzhochstraße is an elevated road and bridge in Mitte district, Hanover, that spans multiple streets and enables continuous traffic flow above ground level. The structure connects Hamburger Allee with Berliner Allee, carrying vehicles over intersections and urban thoroughfares.
The reinforced concrete bridge was built in 1968 and 1969 and opened to traffic on 30 July 1970, connecting Berliner Allee with Hamburger Allee as part of the inner city ring. Around 2000 the city debated demolition at a cost of about 13 million euros; instead it was renovated in 2014 and 2015 for 3.5 million euros.
The name comes from the adjacent Raschplatz. Since 1988 a construction trailer on the traffic island where the bridge crosses the Lister Meile has housed a contact café run by the Christian addiction aid Neues Land, open to drug users, homeless and needy people; three containers were added in 1995. In 2021 the ten-day Theaterformen festival and a city lab on climate justice took place on the closed roadway.
The elevated roadway is open to traffic around the clock and offers drivers a direct route through the city center. Pedestrians reach the areas below via stairs and pathways that lead to streets at ground level.
The sculpture Hangover by Andreas von Weizsäcker, installed in 1991 under the bridge, consists of three car bodies wrapped in paper and hung upside down. It was meant to be temporary but stayed permanently; the city's cultural office calls it an ironic monument to Hanover's car-friendly city planning.
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