Germany's most expensive bypass needs bridge repairs before it opens

The bridge is 916 meters long and up to 70 meters high, and at five of its eight piers the deck is tied rigidly into the pier heads instead of sitting on bearings, t-online reported. The flaws are in the haunches, the widened sections where four of the piers join the steel-composite deck. The German government blamed a workmanship error by the contractor joint venture: formwork material was left inside during the pour and created cavities, Berliner Kurier reported. DEGES said the builder found the problem itself in April 2026.

Ultrasound, radar and structural checks show the bridge's stability is not at risk, the federal government said, but the voids still have to be filled. That requires a special concrete the federal government must approve, so repairs are not expected to start before 2027. DEGES said it can set a new opening date only after the repair plan is approved, and the owner and builder are still negotiating it. Berliner Kurier identified the joint venture as BeMo Tunnelling of Dortmund and Metrostav of Prague.

The bypass is meant to pull through traffic out of Pirna, a town of about 40,000 on the route to the A17 between Dresden and Prague. Planning started in 1999 at the equivalent of about €36 million. Estimates were under €100 million when construction began in 2017; a 2025 calculation reached €288.4 million, close to €76 million per kilometer. Change orders alone total almost €135 million. The federal government says it does not yet know the repair bill or what the longer schedule will cost.