Crumbling German Autobahns Leave Drivers Stuck in Traffic Jams
- Germany underspending on infrastructure threatens growth
- Economists say shoddy roads make Germany less attractive
Autobahn.
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On a typical weekday, hundreds of heavy trucks arrive at the Chempark Leverkusen, a sprawling complex of refineries flanking the Rhine River in western Germany. For the past two years, the trucks have been forced to make long detours to avoid a crumbling Autobahn bridge that dates to when the Beatles were singing Twist and Shout in Hamburg.
Designed in the early 1960s to carry 40,000 cars a day, the span over the Rhine today sees three times that number -- and it’s barely holding up. After hundreds of cracks were discovered, authorities closed the bridge to trucks and reduced the speed limit to 60 kilometers per hour (37 mph).