A7 south of the Elbtunnel opened after six years of construction

After six years of construction, the A7 south of the Elbe Tunnel, which has been expanded to eight lanes, will be officially opened on Saturday. Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger (CDU) and Hamburg's Transport Senator Anjes Tjarks (Greens) as well as representatives of Autobahn GmbH and the project company Deges (German Unity of Highway Planning and Construction GmbH) are expected at the celebration.

Traffic will not be able to move over the approximately four kilometer long section until Monday morning. The motorway and the Elbe tunnel are closed this weekend due to remaining work on the route and further construction work north of the Elbe.

The A7 between the Elbe tunnel and the future Hamburg-Hafen junction, where the A26 West from Stade (Lower Saxony) is to be connected by 2028, runs over a bridge structure. The two carriageways of the Elbmarsch elevated road, which according to Deges is officially the longest motorway bridge in Germany, left a gap in the middle until it was expanded. This gap was already planned when the motorway was built over 50 years ago for later widening by two lanes.

New highway construction in just under 20 years?

This gap has now been closed after the expansion was previously tested in engineering terms on a short section. According to the Deges, supporting pillars and foundations were reinforced. The original building, which opened in 1975, has a lifespan until 2045. “By then it will have to be examined whether a replacement building will be necessary,” says the project description.

Before the actual Elbmarsch elevated road was expanded, the approximately 400 meter long ramp to the entrances to the Elbtunnel was rebuilt with great technical effort. Since May 2023, the tunnel entrances no longer rest on support pillars, but on an embankment.

A downer for drivers: the daily traffic jams in front of the Elbe Tunnel are not expected to end for the time being. The expansion of the A7 north of the Elbe Tunnel will continue until the end of 2029. A two-kilometer-long noise protection tunnel is being built in the Altona area. Until then, there will only be three lanes in each direction. In order to avoid dangerous traffic jams in the Elbe Tunnel, the Flensburg direction will be narrowed from four to three lanes before the entrance.