Dillinger heavy plate for the
bridge across the river Elbe near Mühlberg

In 2010, the German Bridge Award in the category “Road and railway bridges” was given to the bridge across the river Elbe near Mühlberg, also known as „Eye of Mühlberg“ because of its distinctive appearance. The composite bridge planned by the consulting engineers of Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner consists of 12 spans and is 690.5 m long. This bridge is part of the state road L66 and links the federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony. The felicitous combination of simple elegance and innovative construction idea was decisive for the award. The ecologic requirements could be perfectly achieved by an effective span of 144m in the stream area. The mission was to intervene as little as possible in the floodplain of the Elbe and her different nature protection areas despite the length of the construction. The discreet and flat beam bridge that fits harmonically in the landscape could perfectly accomplish this challenge. The distinctive construction element of the bridge is a pier, which forms with the composite box girder of the superstructure the shape of an “eye” and hence gives to the bridge its unmistakable appearance. Dillinger Hütte provided for this bridge construction inaugurated in December 2008 ca. 2,400 t heavy plates in qualities of S355J2G3, S355J2G3C, S355K2G3 and S355NL in thicknesses up to 110 mm.