Germany's failing bridges could wreck Europe's ability to wage war
They are supposed to be the gold standard for efficient, high-quality engineering, but Germany's bridges are in such poor condition that allied tanks may not be able to drive over them if war breaks out with Russia.
As tensions soar with Moscow, a colonel in the German reserve armed forces has raised concerns over the 'dilapidated' bridge network in his country, where as many as one in three need urgent repairs.
Reserve Colonel Patrick Sensburg, the head of the Bundeswehr's reservist association, said that it would be 'impossible' to rapidly deploy tanks in Germany in a crisis if soldiers do not know which bridges are strong enough to carry them.
'The condition of many bridges in Germany is actually worrying. Around one in three is dilapidated,' he told The Telegraph.
'My main concern is that, if the weight load capacity of the bridges is unclear, tanks or other large military equipment will not have adequate exit routes in an emergency, making the rapid deployment of forces impossible.'
Germany would play a crucial transit role in the event of war with Russia, with huge numbers of soldiers, tanks and other equipment passing through the country towards the eastern front.
But the poor state of the German bridge network has raised concerns that soldiers and supplies would face difficult navigating through the country.
A recent survey by Transport and Environment, a European lobby group, found that 16,000 bridges in Germany are dilapidated and many are not even designed to bear heavy loads, such as tanks, which weigh about 60 tons.
About 5,900 of these bridges would need to be completely replaced, while the other 10,000 could be fixed with reinforcement or replacement works, the study found.
German infrastructure has suffered from decades of under-investment, which has led to crumbling road, bridge and railway networks in a country historically famous for its engineering skills.
Res Col Sensburg said that the new German government should fix the bridges as a top priority, relying on a new €500 billion (£420 billion) infrastructure fund announced last month by Friedrich Merz, the incoming chancellor.
He said that one interim solution would be returning yellow tank signs to bridges in Germany, stating how much weight a bridge can carry. The signs were mostly removed in Germany after the Cold War because they were no longer considered necessary.
'The new federal government should invest significantly in security-relevant infrastructure and then reinstall the familiar tank signs of the past in front of bridges. They are not an interference and provide information about the load a bridge can bear,' he said.
'This also makes sense, for example, for aid after natural disasters. In Poland, the tank signs were reinstalled last year as part of the Nato exercise Steadfast Defender 2024. We should follow this example.'
The dire state of Germany's bridge network was highlighted last summer by the collapse of Carola Bridge, one of the main crossing points over the Elbe in Dresden.
According to Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper, the so-called Ringbahn bridge in the west of Berlin is also a cause of major concern, having been closed in March because of a crack in its supporting structure. The bridge, constructed in 1963, is due to be demolished but it remains unclear when a replacement will be completed.
In September, ZDF, a German broadcaster, reported that a bridge forming part of the Meckenheim motorway junction, in west Germany, was one of the most dilapidated in the country.
A Bundeswehr spokesman said that the nation's bridges were 'generally sound'. Asked whether they would collapse under the weight of tanks, she referred the question to the transport ministry.
The spokesman added: 'Any potential aggressor should realise that an attack on our alliance's territory has no chance of success because we are willing and able to defend ourselves.'
A German transport ministry spokesman said that modernisation work on bridges was a 'top priority', but referred the question about collapse risks to the German defence ministry, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The transport spokesman said of the renovation works: 'Due to the urgency of the situation, priority will be given to the large bridges, where modernisation is of course more complex and time-consuming than for smaller bridges.'
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