Replacing Stay-Cables of the Rhine River Bridge Rheinbrücke Flehe without Traffic Interruption

This paper reports on the replacement of nine stay cables of a cable-stayed bridge south of Dusseldorf, Germany, without traffic interruption. Due to the bridge’s long service life, the stay cables showed some signs of damage and needed to be repaired. Nine of the cables were damaged beyond repair, with open fractures of single wires, so they had to be replaced. The replacement required enormous structural and technical skills on the part of all the engineers and craftsmen involved due to the necessity of keeping traffic flowing with no lane closures. This administrative requirement was successfully fulfilled. Other than slightly narrowed lanes, the bridge’s traffic area remained unaffected by the replacement work, and traffic flowed smoothly throughout the project. THE BRIDGE STRUCTURE