Tag Archive for: News

BW3-1 Overfly

Donges SteelTec builds mega bridge at the Nuremberg-East motorway junction

 The 600-metre-long motorway bridge spans the Nuremberg-East junction in an arc. The so-called overfly is designed to allow motorists to practically fly over the A6/A9 junction. The bridge is intended to prevent traffic gridlock at this junction.

The 9,000-tonne steel structure is being pushed over the motorway. Our foreman Manfred Lind and his team pre-assembled the bridge piece by piece next to the motorway and then, with the help of the yellow front end, pushed it centimetre by centimetre over the motorway – while traffic continued to flow underneath the bridge. The final delicate moment for Lind and his team was lowering the bridge one metre to its final position. In the end, every millimetre counts. The gap between the bridge and the bearing on which it rests must be wafer-thin. ‘The steel bridge has to rest on a bearing because it moves. When it gets warm, it gets longer, and when it gets cold, it gets shorter,’ explains Manfred Lind. It took more than two years for the steel structure to reach this point.

As soon as the bridge is resting on the bearings, the concrete workers on the bridge will start concreting the roadway. The opening of the 65 million euro overfly is planned for early 2026.

Bayerischer Rundfunk has made an impressive film about this, which can be viewed here.

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Pfaffendorf Bridge

Steel girders weighing tonnes for the new Pfaffendorf Bridge in Koblenz lifted into place by floating crane

The new Pfaffendorf Bridge connects the city centre of Koblenz with the right bank of the Rhine. In mid-June, the first steel girders weighing several tonnes for the new Rhine bridge in the river section were lifted into place using a floating crane. The seven steel parts weighing up to 480 tonnes for the first of five construction phases were lifted into place by crane from a pontoon in the Rhine. Due to the low water level, the Rhine first had to be dredged deeper at the lifting point so that the pontoons could be moved safely for the 600 tonne crawler crane.

The steel girders were manufactured as individual parts weighing up to 90 tonnes at our plant in Darmstadt, then transported by heavy goods vehicle to Mannheim, where they were pre-assembled into large components and transported by ship down the Rhine from Mannheim’s Rheinau harbour to the construction site in Koblenz.

‘The good preparation of our bridge construction experts and the precision work of our technical office, production and assembly team made it possible to lift in this challenging bridge structure with millimetre precision,’ says Stephan Langer, Head of Bridge Construction at Donges SteelTec.

Once the first bridge components have been lifted into place on the castle side, further steel components will follow in autumn and winter 2025, including on the Pfaffendorf side. The concreting of the second river pier was already completed here last week. The bridge is scheduled for completion in 2029.

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12th Merck company run

Donges SteelTec team impresses at the 12th Merck company run

Darmstadt 13 May 2025. Our Donges SteelTec team started the 12th Merck company run with a lot of joy, team spirit and a touch of nervousness. Over 7,000 runners from more than 300 companies joined forces to create an unforgettable event that was bursting with energy and team spirit.

Whether on the short 3.5 km, the medium 5 km or the 10 km challenge – each individual gave their best. The feeling of crossing the finish line together, the cheering spectators and the positive atmosphere in the Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor – these are moments that we will remember for a long time to come.

After the run, we celebrated this special day with a cold beer, full of pride and gratitude for our team and our joint achievement.

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A6 Grumbachtal Bridge

Grumbach Valley Bridge gap closure successfully completed

The steel assembly of the Grumbach Valley Bridge near Sankt Ingbert was successfully completed with the lifting of the last two sections of substructure 1.

The two box girder strands of the substructure comprise a total steel tonnage of approx. 2,400 tonnes. The last two sections were lifted into place from a crane position behind the abutment on the Saarbrücken side of the bridge structure. Using a 750 tonne crane, the two sections were lifted off the heavy-duty transporters, turned and then lifted into their final position. This created the conditions for concreting the carriageway slab. Donges SteelTec has thus once again demonstrated its capabilities in the construction of large bridges.

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Change in production management at Donges SteelTec

Dr Peter Schäfer hands over the baton to Dr Aaron von der Heyden

After 35 years of dedicated service to our company, we have bid farewell to our long-standing Production Manager, Dr Peter Schäfer, on his well-deserved retirement. We would like to express our sincere thanks for his extraordinary loyalty, his tireless commitment and his great contribution to the successful development of our production. During his career, Dr Schäfer has made a significant contribution to the technological and organisational development of our company – always with an eye for quality, efficiency and teamwork.

Our Technical Director, Dr Aaron von der Heyden, will take over the management of production in future. By closely combining technical management and production, we are creating optimal conditions for the holistic further development of our production processes and for shaping the future of our company in a sustainable manner.

We wish Dr Schäfer all the very best for his new chapter in his life and would like to thank him once again for over three decades of valuable collaboration. We also wish Dr von der Heyden every success in his new role.

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Our construction site containers have a new look!

The first containers in the new Donges CI are used on the Mainflingen bridge construction site.

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C-XIII Interim Meeting 2025

Donges SteelTec welcomes international welding technology experts from the IIW in Darmstadt

As part of the C-XIII Interim Meeting 2025, an international group of experts from the International Institute of Welding (IIW) visited our company in Darmstadt last Thursday.

After a brief presentation of our company and our projects, the welding technology experts were given an insight into our production and processes during a workshop tour. The meeting with colleagues from all over the world provided a welcome opportunity to discuss current challenges and developments in steel construction and welding technology.

Many thanks to the IIW group for their visit and interest – we were delighted to be part of this meeting!

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PTS at Frankfurt Airport

New SKY Line railway completes first test run

The construction work on the PTS station at Terminal 1 at Frankfurt Airport is nearing completion, meaning that the Sky Line railway, which connects Terminal 3 to Terminals 1 and 2, was able to complete its test run for the first time. The first passenger last Monday was Father Christmas.

The trains are a driverless passenger transport system that will carry more than 4,000 passengers per hour and direction. The journey time from the long-distance and regional railway station to Terminal 3 is just under eight minutes – 365 days a year.

Thanks to the two-minute frequency and a top speed of 80 km/h, even tight transfer times to connecting flights of 45 minutes will be achievable.

Donges SteelTec was commissioned with the manufacture, delivery and assembly of the complex steel structure of the PTS station. The production and assembly of the conical round supports and the cast nodes posed a particular challenge.

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A6 Grumbachtalbrücke

Assembly start of the 2nd construction phase of the Grumbach Valley Bridge near St. Ingbert

In April 2023, construction work on the 1st construction phase of the Grumbach Valley Bridge was completed and traffic was diverted to the newly constructed structure. Following the demolition of the existing structure and the construction of the first substructures, our assembly team has now set up the construction site for the assembly of the steel structure of the 2nd construction phase (substructure 1) for the Mannheim direction of travel.

In the first assembly phase, two auxiliary supports were erected over the past few weeks to store the 262-tonne steel structures. The first large components were then transported overnight from our plant in Darmstadt to the construction site in Saarland using heavy goods vehicles. There they were first turned on the ground and then lifted into their final position using two 650 tonne mobile cranes. Once the steel parts had been successfully lifted into place, the component joints were welded and then coated with corrosion protection.

A total of 22 sections and 6 cross beams for the entire substructure are assembled in this way.

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BW3-1 Overfly

Overfly structure at Nuremberg East motorway junction moved to final position

Big praise for our project management and assembly team! Last Thursday, the final shifting of the 588 m long ‘Overfly structure over the A9 motorway at the Nuremberg East junction into its final position was completed with great precision.

Now the shunting rockers can be dismantled and the stacking towers erected so that the 8600 tonne steel structure can be stacked to its final height. The yellow front fork has fulfilled its function for moving the steel superstructure including the 5 pairs of pylons standing on it using the incremental launching method and can now be dismantled.

The ‘Overfly’ construction project comprises the construction of a 6-span bridge that spans the Nuremberg East motorway junction and crosses the A6 (Heilbronn – Amberg), the A9 (Berlin – Munich), the Amberg Munich ramp (2x) and the distributor carriageway (Berlin – Amberg).

Donges SteelTec manufactured and assembled the 588 m long six-span steel composite bridge, which impressively spans the individual support spans of 115 m with a total of 5 pairs of pylons. Up to 55 stranded cables form the cables of the stay cables. 8600 tonnes of steel were required for the construction of the flyover.

The incremental launching method of the steel composite deck slab with pylon spans of 64.00 m + 4 x 115.00 m + 64.00 m = 588.00 m over flowing motorway traffic posed a particular challenge for this bridge structure.

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