The federal states are responsible for federal road bridges. Therefore, no federal refurbishment programme is in place for these bridges. The progress made in refurbishing federal road bridges is also slow. So far, the Ministry has taken a passive role and has not specified clear refurbishment goals which the federal states have to meet. So there is even the risk that the bridge stock deteriorates.
Dilapidated bridges: Refurbishment is clearly behind schedule
Many motorway and federal road bridges are in poor condition. The refurbishment does not make any progress. The Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport needs to take further measures to address the dilapidation.
For years, dilapidated bridges in Germany have been in the public focus. Therefore, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (Ministry) implemented a programme in 2022 to refurbish the most critical motorway bridge partial structures and those in the poorest condition until 2032: That makes approximately 5,000 partial structures.
Until the end of 2024, however, Autobahn GmbH which had been tasked with the refurbishment only completed 40 per cent of the refurbishment works to the partial structures scheduled until then. Out of the 280 refurbishments scheduled for 2024, only 69 were undertaken. The gap between the Ministry’s planning and successful refurbishment was getting larger and larger.
In order to complete the bridge refurbishment programme until 2032, Autobahn GmbH would have to refurbish approximately 590 partial structures each year from now on. This is not realistic.
Ministry’s interim evaluation is overly positive
Despite being obviously behind schedule, the Ministry positively reported on the progress made so far in autumn 2024. However, we have come to a different conclusion: The Ministry considers all completed partial structures to be a programme success even though less than half of them really fall within the scope of the refurbishment programme.
Furthermore, the Ministry’s interim evaluation is based on a number of partial structures to be refurbished which is 20 per cent too few. Because of these two facts, the programme’s success appears to be overly positive.
Bridge refurbishment needs to be a priority. Transport and economy depend on it.
Urgent need for action
In contrast to the Ministry, we have drawn a sobering conclusion: Without targeted measures, the condition of the bridges will continue to deteriorate.
We recommend that:
- Autobahn GmbH be equipped with human and financial resources focusing on bridge refurbishment.
- new construction and expansion projects be deferred to release staff capacity for bridge refurbishment in the short term.
- the budget funds required for the bridge refurbishment be provided on a long-term basis and earmarked for the purpose of bridge refurbishment.
- clear goals be specified for bridge refurbishments which fall under the responsibility of the federal states.
Resolute action is needed to safeguard the infrastructure on a long-term basis and thus to ensure federal trunk road mobility in Germany.
Please read our special report to get more information on our audit findings and recommendations:
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Special report