The Kochertal Bridge carries the A6 motorway between Heilbronn and Nuremberg across the Kocher valley at Geislingen am Kocher, in Baden-Württemberg. It is 1,128 m long over nine spans, two of 81 m and seven of 138 m, and its deck stands up to 185 m above the valley floor. Its eight piers range from 40 m to 178 m. According to the State of Baden-Württemberg, the bridge had the tallest bridge piers in the world until the Millau Viaduct took the record in 2004.

The structure built was not the first design. A joint venture of Züblin, DYWIDAG and Wayss & Freytag built the bridge to an alternative proposed by Wayss & Freytag, with Fritz Leonhardt as adviser. The design is credited to Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner, with the architect Hans Kammerer. Construction ran from 1976 to 1979, and the bridge opened to traffic on 18 December 1979.

178 m
Tallest pier
185 m
Deck above valley floor
1,128 m
Length
138 m
Typical span
31 m
Deck width
Phase 1 — The piers
Climbing formwork to record height
The piers are hollow rectangular sections in reinforced concrete. Baden-Württemberg’s monument office describes their height as made possible by climbing formwork, then a new concreting and formwork technique.
Phase 2 — The spine
A narrow box cantilevered first
In cross-section the superstructure is a single-cell box 8.6 m wide and a constant 6.5 m deep, carrying a deck slab 31 m wide. Only the narrow box was built by balanced cantilever, advanced from each pier in both directions at once across the 138 m spans. Structurae records the superstructure as built by balanced cantilever of the box section alone.
Phase 3 — The wings
Deck slab and struts in a second pass
The remaining parts of the cross-section were added afterwards. Structurae and German Wikipedia record that the projecting parts of the deck slab were cast with a trailing carriage; the inclined compression struts that carry them were precast concrete elements, and the state monument office describes this work as following behind the cantilevering. According to Girmscheid’s Bauverfahren des Brückenbaus, this second pass followed about three months behind the first, and a 120 m steel advancing girder (Vorfahrträger) was part of the equipment. The inclined struts support the slab, which projects 11.2 m on each side, every 7.67 m.
Phase 4 — The frame
Central piers fixed into the deck
Many cantilever bridges deepen the box over the piers, where construction moments peak. Kochertal kept a constant 6.5 m. The four central piers, 3 to 6, are fixed into the superstructure and act with it as a frame; with piers 2 and 7 they form the fixed point of the bridge in the longitudinal direction.
Four-phase schematic of the Kochertal Bridge: hollow piers up to 178 m built with climbing formwork; an 8.6 m wide, 6.5 m deep single-cell box cantilevered first; the deck slab widened to 31 m in a second pass by a trailing carriage, with cantilevers carried on precast inclined struts; and the completed 1,128 m viaduct with its deck up to 185 m above the valley.
The cross-section was staged: box first, slab and struts later. Conceptual schematic, not to scale; pier heights and section shown schematically.
Sources: Structurae; Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg; Girmscheid, Bauverfahren des Brückenbaus; Wikipedia (de). Diagram: EE&HL Network, 2026.
Tap or click the diagram to open it full size.

At Kochertal the cross-section itself was staged. The bridge was cantilevered as a narrow box and widened into a motorway deck afterwards.

Carrying only the core section through the cantilever stages meant that the advancing cantilevers carried less of the final cross-section before closure. That is an editorial reading of the documented sequence; the sources consulted for this page do not quantify the effect on weight, prestressing or programme.

The bridge has since been strengthened. Between 2013 and the end of 2015 the webs and bottom slab of the box were reinforced over the piers and additional tendons installed, at a total cost of €22.4 million, so that the bridge could carry three lanes in each direction. The rehabilitation received the German Bridge Prize in 2016, in the road and railway bridges category.

For a record pier built three decades later, see the Gilberto Borja Navarrete Viaduct and the Millau Viaduct. For the method, see What Is Balanced Cantilever Construction?.

Related case studies: Millau Viaduct · Gilberto Borja Navarrete Viaduct · Oléron Viaduct

Core concepts: What is erection engineering? · What is heavy lift engineering?

The Kochertal Bridge under construction in 1979: tall slender piers across a wooded valley, with deck cantilevers advancing from the piers and a gap still open at the centre.
The Kochertal Bridge under construction, 1979, with the cantilevers not yet closed. Composite of two slides.
Photo: KlausFoehl, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Looking up at the Kochertal Bridge from the valley floor: tall concrete piers carrying the box girder, with the inclined struts under the deck slab visible against the sky.
The completed bridge from below, 2008; the inclined struts under the deck slab are visible. Resized from the original for web display.
Photo: Bernd Haynold, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sources: Structurae — dimensions, spans, piers, dates, cost, the deck slab cast afterwards with a trailing carriage, and the 2013–2015 strengthening; Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport — 40th-anniversary release, 2019: pier-height record until Millau in 2004, construction period and the 2016 bridge prize; Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg 3/2010 — monument portrait: Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner, Hans Kammerer, climbing formwork for the piers, the narrow box cantilevered from the piers, with the slab cantilevers and struts following behind; Girmscheid, G., Bauverfahren des Brückenbaus — lecture notes, printed p. 85: the second pass about three months behind the first, and the 120 m steel advancing girder; Wikipedia (de), Kochertalbrücke — cross-section, struts, trailing carriage, frame action of the central piers and the longitudinal fixed point with piers 2 and 7, joint venture and the 2016 prize for the rehabilitation (secondary)

Frequently Asked Questions

The eight piers range from 40 m to 178 m, and the deck stands up to 185 m above the valley floor. According to the State of Baden-Württemberg, they were the tallest bridge piers in the world until the Millau Viaduct took the record in 2004.

Only the 8.6 m wide single-cell box was built by balanced cantilever from the piers. The projecting parts of the 31 m deck slab were cast afterwards with a trailing carriage, carried on precast inclined compression struts.

A joint venture of Züblin, DYWIDAG and Wayss & Freytag built it to an alternative design proposed by Wayss & Freytag, with Fritz Leonhardt as adviser. The design is credited to Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner, with the architect Hans Kammerer.

Construction ran from 1976 to 1979, and the bridge opened to traffic on 18 December 1979.

Yes. Between 2013 and the end of 2015 the box was strengthened over the piers and additional tendons were installed, at a total cost of €22.4 million, to allow three lanes in each direction. The rehabilitation received the German Bridge Prize in 2016.