Hamburg Elbe Tunnel closed at the weekend due to construction work
Just six weeks after the most recent full closure of the A7 in Hamburg, the highway will once again be closed for a whole weekend due to construction work. From 10 p.m. on Friday evening until 5 a.m. on Monday morning, the A7 between Hamburg-Heimfeld and -Volkspark will be completely closed, according to Autobahn GmbH Nord. This means that the important north-south route through the Elbe Tunnel will be closed for 55 hours. The junctions between Volkspark and Heimfeld will be closed at 9 p.m. on Friday.
During the closure, the construction of the Altona noise protection tunnel will make significant progress. Precast concrete elements are to be lifted into place on Behringstrasse, which crosses the highway at the Othmarschen junction. They are preliminary elements of the future tunnel and at the same time the basis for a widened crossing over the A7. The two other major crossings in the tunnel area, Osdorfer Weg and Bahrenfelder Chaussee, were already completed during the full closure in October.
A new traffic routing will also be set up this coming weekend. All traffic with three lanes each in the north and southbound directions will be shifted to the Flensburg lane. This will clear the way for widening the carriageway in the direction of Hanover and building the west tunnel of the 2.2-kilometre noise protection tunnel.
For inter-regional traffic, Autobahn GmbH recommends the route via the A1, A21 and B205 between the Horster Dreieck south of Hamburg and the Neumünster-Süd junction in Schleswig-Holstein. Within the city, traffic will mainly be diverted via the Elbe bridges. The situation will be difficult for drivers in Othmarschen. Not only will Behringstraße be closed in the direction of the city center, but also Reventlowstraße, which runs parallel to the A7. A road construction project is also being carried out there, it was reported.
The Hamburg section of the A7 has been undergoing expansion since 2014. Tunnels have already been built in Hamburg-Schnelsen and -Stellingen to protect residents from noise. Construction of the longest of the three noise protection tunnels officially began in April 2021. Preparatory work has been underway since 2019 and the Altona tunnel is due to be completed by the end of 2028. The construction work repeatedly requires full closures of the A7 for several days, three of them this year alone.
South of the Elbe tunnel, the freeway runs over a bridge construction around four kilometers long. Two new lanes are currently being inserted between the two lanes on stilts. In addition, the new Hamburg-Hafen interchange is being built near Hamburg-Moorburg, which will connect the A7 with the A26-West from Lower Saxony, which is currently under construction. Later, the so-called Hafenpassage (A26-Ost) will also branch off to the A1 at Hamburg-Stillhorn.
During the weekend closure, motorists will need to avoid the A7 if they own a car, as the construction of precast concrete elements for the Altona noise protection tunnel on Behringstrasse will cause traffic disruptions due to the heavy traffic and construction machinery. As a result, the closure of the Elbe Tunnel for 55 hours will significantly impact traffic, causing delays and detours for motorists who rely on the important north-south route.
Source: www.dpa.com
