traffic | A100 bridge Berlin: view of the motorway

In July, onlookers watched the steel construction for the new Ringbahn bridge being lifted into place. Photo: dpa/Sven Kaeuler There is great fascination with construction sites, says civil engineer Rainer Siegel, who heads the bridge competence center of the federal Autobahn GmbH. Before the 2.4-kilometer-long Tiergarten Tunnel was opened to car traffic in 2006, around 60,000 Berlin residents and guests took the opportunity to walk through it on March 19 of that year. From 1995 to the end of 2000, the temporary red information box on stilts, from which the construction progress of the skyscrapers on Potsdamer Platz could be viewed, attracted an impressive nine million visitors. This 62.5 meter long, 15 meter wide and 15 meter high information box received the steel construction and an architecture prize in 1996.

This is not to be expected with the information box, which is also red and opened on Tuesday at the Westkreuz S-Bahn station. It consists comparatively simply of four containers, on top of which two more containers and a viewing platform are placed. Using fixed binoculars, the passengers waiting for the bus at the Messe-Nord/ICC S-Bahn station, around 600 meters away, can be viewed as if they were not far away. But of course that's not the point here. The info box initially provides information about the new construction of the nearby Ringbahn bridge.

The old bridge was in danger of collapsing in March last year. Once designed for 20,000 cars per day, it was recently passed by almost 90,000 vehicles daily and suddenly needed to be replaced as quickly as possible. The old bridge was demolished in April 2025 so that S-Bahn trains could finally use the section under the bridge again after weeks of interruption. In July 2026, the 320-ton steel segment that will support the new bridge was installed by a crane. The entire structure should be finished in the summer.

The info box is designed so that it can be used for ten years. When the Ringbahn Bridge project and the associated replacement of the Westend Bridge are completed, other specific projects relating to the ongoing modernization of the Berlin city motorway from the Funkturm triangle to the Rudolf Wissel Bridge will be clarified. “Berliners are getting a modern highway infrastructure back bit by bit every day,” promises Siegel from Autobahn GmbH. The section, which is used by 230,000 vehicles every day that are currently queued up at construction sites, is particularly important for West Berliners, says Siegel.

The first section of the A100 between Kurfürstendamm and Hohenzollerndamm was opened to traffic in 1958, the last section from the Neukölln triangle to Treptower Park in August 2025. The A10 motorway, the Berlin ring around the capital, which also touches the city area in the north, began in the 1930s and was completed by the GDR in the 1970s. Closing the inner ring of the city highway, i.e. running it in an arc from Treptower Park through East Berlin to Wedding, is an idea from the days long gone, when city planners dreamed of a car-friendly city. The Left, Greens and SPD did not attach any importance to the continued construction of the A100 today in their programs for the Berlin House of Representatives election on September 20th. They are currently talking about starting coalition negotiations.

There are bottlenecks where the A100 runs extremely close to residential buildings - with corresponding noise and pollution for the people living there. It is no coincidence that the info box features a simulation in which visitors can raise or lower a noise barrier and adjust the speed of passing cars. You will then hear how loud it gets.

The front half of a car is also built into the box, which serves as a driving simulator for three routes, including a short section of the route from Potsdam towards Hamburg. The steering wheel can be turned and the accelerator pedal depressed. But this has no influence on the drive over an uncharacteristically completely empty motorway, which is recorded on a screen. Visitors could really have an impact on a toy crane that is used to lift a bridge segment - but unfortunately the crane won't work on Tuesday.

Material samples are on display, including steel that is particularly resistant to rust. "If the Eiffel Tower had been built with this, they wouldn't have to constantly repaint it," it says, referring to this Paris landmark that was inaugurated in 1889.

»We want to show what happens behind the construction fence. Infrastructure doesn’t just happen on its own.”

»We want to show what happens behind the construction fence. “Infrastructure doesn’t just happen on its own,” explains Franziska Gundermann-Vogelsang, explaining the purpose of the info box. Gundermann-Vogelsang is a department manager at Deges German Unit Fernstraßesplanungs- und -bau GmbH. Michael Zarth from Team Infobox also promises a look behind the scenes. In a video, an expert reports how Berlin's unfavorable mixed sewer system is being separated from feces and rainwater during construction work - a real contribution to environmental protection, which is otherwise difficult to say when building motorways. Live images from the construction site are broadcast on the two screens directly next to it. This may make sense later at another location of the info box. But here you can't see anything other than from the viewing platform. All you have to do in front of these screens is turn your head 90 degrees and look out the window.

The info box will initially be open on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Depending on the rush, the opening times will be adjusted later.

Other media have corporations or billionaires behind them. We have the nd.Genossenschaft and readers like you. That makes us independent and that’s exactly how we want to remain. But it also means: without you the calculation won't work. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year.

You can donate directly here, one-time or regularly, so that nd stays.