Crumbling bridges slow traffic and the economy in Germany. Can more money fix the problem?

BAD SCHANDAU, Germany — Germany’s reputation for efficiency is taking a hit from crumbling concrete. Cracks and collapses are also a risk to its economy, Europe’s biggest.

The European Union’s most populous member is trying to turn around a problem with worn-out infrastructure — including about 4,000 bridges that need modernizing or replacing over the next decade. All too frequently, unexpected scares about the state of bridges cause short-notice closures that bring local gridlock. Occasionally, it is worse than that.

Cracks and a collapse

In Dresden, a bridge dating back to 1971 partially collapsed in the middle of the night in September due to corrosion. No one was hurt, but the collapse snarled traffic and temporarily blocked shipping on the Elbe River. The remains of the Carola bridge have yet to be removed.

The collapse prompted checks on similarly designed bridges — including one in Bad Schandau, a small town further up the Elbe near the Czech border. It was shut abruptly to all traffic in November as a precaution, leaving locals with a 20-kilometer (12 1/2-mile) trip to the nearest road crossing until it reopened on Thursday — albeit with a 7.5-ton weight limit.

“The closure of this bridge was an absolute catastrophe for people in Bad Schandau,” said Steffen Marx, a civil engineering professor who led ultimately successful stress tests on the bridge. “It’s the classic gridlock … this is the only crossing along nearly 50 kilometers (30 miles) of river.”

Even as the situation eases in Bad Schandau, Berliners are steaming over the abrupt closure last month of a bridge on a busy highway after a widening crack was detected. It will now be demolished quickly. The outage snarled traffic in a large section of the capital, forced the weeks-long closure of a commuter railway line and prompted the government to cough up 150 million euros ($164 million) for its urgent rebuilding.

Saving and splurging

“The Germans are very good engineers. You would think that everything works,” said Monika Schnitzer, the head of an independent panel of economic advisers to the government. “At the same time, the Germans are also very good at saving — and they saved for a very long time particularly on this infrastructure, on bridges.”

Germany’s prospective new government has moved to address the issue before it even takes office. Last month, the would-be coalition under conservative leader Friedrich Merz pushed through parliament a 500 billion-euro ($551 billion) fund, financed by borrowing, to pour money into creaking infrastructure over the next 12 years. Politicians see that as part of efforts to restore the stagnant economy to growth.

It’s not just bridges: There are also decrepit schools, and a national railway has begun thorough but disruptive overhauls of major routes after years of underinvestment. Complaints about frequent delays and breakdowns on the railway have become a national sport.

The coalition agreement presented Wednesday states that “functioning infrastructure is the foundation for our country’s prosperity, social cohesion and sustainability. So Germany needs an infrastructure booster — that applies to hospitals and schools as well as bridges and railways.”

On the roads, it promises that money will be provided “to resolve the renovation backlog on bridges and tunnels in particular.”

The outgoing government says a large number of bridges were already modernized under a program under way since 2022. But much remains to be done.

It’s not just the money

“Now that there’s money, a growth spurt could actually be generated very quickly,” Schnitzer said. “But what is really necessary for this is that the money is spent quickly. And for that, we need much faster planning and approval procedures than we had so far.”

She noted that Germany has proven it can speed up its planning bureaucracy, notably in building its first liquefied natural gas terminals within months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and subsequently cut off pipeline gas supplies to Germany.

Outgoing government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit pointed this week to the availability of construction companies and machines as a hurdle to quick bridge repairs and said Germany is “at its capacity limit.”

Marx said the situation of Germany’s infrastructure is “quite critical.”

“It isn’t so much because we don’t invest enough — that’s one reason,” he said. “But from my point of view, the main reason is that we don’t take enough care of things. That we just don’t maintain infrastructure and we do far too little cleaning, repairing, strengthening, all things we do in our private buildings.”

He added that the huge new infrastructure fund is necessary, but he’s concerned the money will be put only into demolishing and rebuilding the worst bridges rather than ensuring that others never get into that state.

“You can’t win political points with maintenance and preservation — it’s boring and not really spectacular,” Marx said. “But it becomes spectacular when you neglect it.”