Transcending boundaries

After long years of planning, its official inaugural celebration will take place this coming weekend (29./30. April 2017): the extension of Tram Line D from Strasbourg in France to Kehl in Germany. Special steel from Dillinger will play an essential role here in transcending the boundary(ies).

This is because, in order to reach the river Rhine which marks the border, the tram route must cross the Vauban basin. This is achieved by travelling across the newly constructed Pont Citadelle, a 163 metre-long vaulted arch bridge with an arch that rises ornately 40 metres above the surface of the water. When it reaches the Rhine, the new tram crosses it via a 290 metre-long and 16 metre-wide double arched bridge with two arches, each 20 metres in height, until it arrives on the banks at Kehl. Like the Citadelle bridge, the tram bridge across the Rhine also offers space for pedestrians and cyclists.

For these two unique bridge structures, Dillinger supplied a total of around 3,500 tonnes of mainly higher-strength, thermomechanically rolled steel with plate thicknesses of up to 115 millimetres – and is thus playing a part in ensuring that the tram can henceforth travel from what is presently the end of the line at Aristide Briand to the station at Kehl.