General Description
The Schierstein Bridge begins shortly after the Wiesbaden-Äppelallee interchange on the Hessian side of the Rhine. In order to deal with the elevation differential between the two sides of the river, the abutment on the Rhineland-Palatinate side was situated at the level of the highest terrace in Mainz-Gonsenheim (near the Mainz Sand Dunes nature reserve), about one kilometer beyond the Mainz-Mombach interchange. This required an elevated bridge structure (the Hochstraße Lenneberg), with 31 piers, spanning the Mombach floodplain.
This also means that the Mombach interchange is one of the few that lie on a bridge. The bridge was originally designed to accommodate a highway to be built through the interchange, so very short acceleration and deceleration lanes were built there. Several street lights were installed to illuminate the junction, but, for cost reasons, these remain dark today. Also, two traffic control systems at the Mombach interchange have been out of operation since the late 1980s.
In addition, the bridge between the Mombach and Gonsenheim interchanges has no hard shoulder. With about 80,000 vehicles using the bridge per day, a traffic accident or car breakdown inevitably leads to immediate traffic jams.
The Schierstein Bridge has a total (railing to railing) width of 25.50 m (83.7 ft) and a road width of 20 m (66 ft). The cross-section includes two traffic lanes, an emergency lane, and a combined bike- and walkway on each side. Two spiral staircases allow access for pedestrians and cyclists on the left and right side of the bridge, directly over the summer dam of the Rhine. There is also a staircase to the Rettbergsaue in the center of the river on the upstream (east) side of the bridge.
An impressive landmark on the deck of the bridge marks where the bridge crosses the middle of the left arm of Rhine - the border between Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. The monument, with the coat of arms of both states, was produced by Raimund Eser in 1961. It was donated by the William Dyckerhoff Institute of Wiesbaden.
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