Germany’s federal transport minister, Patrick Schnieder (CDU), took a stand on a Bundesrat initiative from North Rhine‑Westphalia (NRW) even before the proposal was debated in the relevant committees. The request calls on the Bundesrat to urge the federal government to improve the protection of dilapidated bridges throughout the country- for example by raising fines for freight operators that send trucks that are far too heavy onto those structures.
Schnieder told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that the priority must be to keep traffic flowing until bridges can be replaced. “We want to do everything to keep the roads open until a replacement is built” he said. “Protecting existing bridges is therefore crucial”. He added that he is open to working with the states to explore ways to keep bridges safe from overweight trucks, and that the proposal will look closely at how fine levels could be increased. “Effective controls are equally important – such as on‑the‑road weight measurements using the latest technology” he continued, noting that experts are already engaged on this.
In NRW alone, the state is responsible for about 6,300 bridges, many of which need repair. With the construction industry’s capacity stretched thin, weight restrictions are increasingly used. Still, measurements show that many freight operators ignore or consciously bypass the limits. For instance, the Uerdinger Bridge between Duisburg and Krefeld allows only trucks up to 30 tonnes, yet the monitoring points register 170 trucks exceeding the weight limit each weekday. “Every violation of the weight limits on our bridges is one too many” said NRW’s transport minister Oliver Krischer. “We are unnecessarily causing damage to bridges, and that is unacceptable”.
From NRW’s perspective, the high number of breaches is largely due to the fact that freight companies face little financial deterrence when they send overweight trucks over vulnerable bridges. The resolution therefore argues that, economically, it can make sense for businesses to disregard the limits and the stipulated fines in order to use shorter, faster routes or to save on additional trips.
A spokesperson for the federal transport ministry said that the appropriate fine levels for such violations, and whether stricter measures are required, are regularly reviewed by the federal government and the states. In the past, this has already led to a series of tightening measures.