A1 near Bargteheide: Bridge closure causes traffic jams at night!

A1 near Bargteheide: Bridge closure causes traffic jams at night!

Anyone traveling on the A1 near Bargteheide in the next few days should dress warmly! From this evening, September 23, 2025, at 8 p.m. until tomorrow morning at 5 a.m., the motorway in the direction of Lübeck will be completely closed. The reason for this measure is the renewal of a dilapidated bridge at the Bargteheide motorway junction, which has been under construction since May 2024. The old bridge has been demolished and construction work on the new structure is progressing NDR reported.

The conversion is necessary in order to route traffic from the A21 over the new bridge to the A1 in the future. In order to be able to carry out the work safely, workers have to, among other things, dismantle scaffolding and install drainage systems - quite tricky when vehicles are constantly on the move. Incidentally, this final full closure in this area will not be the last of its kind; Another closure is planned for the last weekend in October.

Closures also in June 2025

But this is not the first full closure this year. There will be another closure of the south/Hamburg lane on the A1 from June 20th to 22nd, 2025. This is necessary in order to hoist in new bridge girders, which will happen again and again throughout the year, as the crossing structure for the A21 over the A1, which was built in 1966, no longer meets current traffic requirements Autobahn GmbH explained. Road users must expect longer journey times during this time.

However, diversions are not a big deal: traffic heading south is diverted via the A20 and B207 to the A24, and there are appropriate signs for the bypasses. So that residents are not put under unnecessary strain, we are advised to avoid non-essential journeys in the region during the closures.

Bridge modernization in Germany

These construction measures are part of a larger bridge modernization program in Germany, which is necessary due to the high loads and age of many bridges. According to the Federal Ministry of Transport There are more than 40,300 bridges in Germany, many of which date from the boom years between 1960 and 1985. The increasing traffic load makes extensive maintenance and modernization measures unavoidable.

The aim of this initiative is to adapt the existing bridges to today's requirements in terms of load-bearing capacity and traffic safety. Within the next decade there will be a continuous core network of motorway routes with the required load capacity - a measure that will certainly be very popular in terms of traffic.

Overall, it is a huge project on which not only those responsible at Autobahn GmbH, but also the federal and state governments are working hard to make the infrastructure fit for the future. So if you have to get on the A1 near Bargteheide in the coming weeks, you should be prepared to allow yourself some time - it takes a good hand when driving!