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This year, the Steel Construction Award for outstanding engineering and architectural innovation was awarded for the tenth time. In the category of Infrastructure, the project “U81 city train bridge over Nordstern, Düsseldorf” by MCE came out on top.
The Austrian Steel Construction Award 2025 was conferred as part of the 34th Austrian Steel Construction Day 2025 in Graz. From a total of 21 submitted projects, a distinguished jury of experts selected the best achievements in steel construction. HABAU GROUP company MCE GmbH took home the prize in the Infrastructure category for its U81 city train bridge over Nordstern in Düsseldorf.
The jury placed special emphasis on the unusual architectural and technical challenge of implementing a railway bridge with a heavily curved shape over multiple sections. The decision in favour of a central, curved truss was commended as the expression of a resolute creative drive and an outstanding feat of engineering.
“This award is a fantastic recognition of the peak technical performance and innovative capacity of our team”, stated Hubert Wetschnig, CEO of the HABAU GROUP. “The Düsseldorf city train bridge is an impressive example of what modern engineering is capable of in bridge construction today. My thanks and sincere congratulations go out to all those involved who made this success possible. We’re proud to be a part of this success story.”
A bridge construction in a class of its own
The new U81 city train bridge is 441 metres long and traverses the heavily frequented “Nordstern” transport hub in Düsseldorf. It connects the airport directly to the city train network, providing a considerable improvement to local public transport in the region. The bridge traces a striking 90-degree curve and crosses several traffic routes: a six-lane motorway, a four-lane dual carriageway, four entrance and exit ramps, one roundabout, one pedestrian bridge and the tracks of the Rheinbahn. At several points, up to four different traffic routes will pass over one another in future. Thanks to its length and flexible construction style, the bridge reacts noticeably to fluctuations in temperature, expanding or contracting and thus acting as a “breathing bridge”.
The bridge structure is also setting new technical standards: it was executed as a semi-integral support structure where the superstructure is firmly attached to the two abutments, while resting moveably on five intermediate supports. The supporting structure is borne by a massive central trussed girder in the bridge axis. Arranged on both sides of this are the tracks for the two city train lines.
To keep the impact of the bridge construction site on the existing infrastructure to an absolute minimum, the majority of the bridge was pre-assembled in segments of around 50 metres in length behind the subsequent abutment axis 70. Afterwards, the structure was moved into its final position using incremental launching. A custom-developed assembly concept by MCE with a 40-metre-long launch nose made it possible to straddle span widths of up to 81 metres with cantilevers – entirely without the originally planned auxiliary supports. The insertion itself was carried out with steel cables, which were anchored to the abutment and connected to the end of the bridge with strand jacks. Through carefully controlled pulling on the strand jacks, the structure was gradually pushed forward bit by bit. The section between abutment 10 and pillar 20 was assembled on support frames in the final position.
