Prof. Steffen Marx from the Institute of Concrete Structures at TU Dresden presented his report on the causes of the collapse of the Carola Bridge to the Dresden City Construction Committee on December 11, 2024. According to his assessment, the primary cause was corrosion damage to steel elements that had already occurred during the construction of the bridge. In conjunction with material fatigue due to the daily traffic loads of the past decades, the corrosion damage led to the sudden collapse of the bridge on September 11, 2024.

© TUD | Benjamin Griebe

Steffen Marx identified hydrogen-induced stress corrosion cracking as the cause of the collapse of bridge section C of the Carola Bridge. “Meanwhile, the main cause of the damage can be clearly localized: The bridge collapse was almost certainly caused by the failure of the large cantilever arm above pillar D,” explains Marx, who was commissioned by the state capital Dresden to conduct the expert report.

“This corrosion was initiated during construction and took place obscured from the outside over many years inside the bridge and largely independently of superficial damage,” adds the expert. The only way to detect and assess damage of this kind is through acoustic emission measurements.

Steffen Marx's opinion also focused on the remaining bridge sections A and B. There is also extensive, noticeable corrosion damage in this section. Due to the damage caused by the collapse, the Carola Bridge is at the end of its load-bearing capacity and could collapse just as suddenly as the bridge in section C. A complete demolition is therefore unavoidable.

Steffen Marx explains the causes of the collapse of the Carola Bridge and ways of detecting such damage at an early stage in the following video: https://youtube.com/shorts/kOqot6ve9Jk

Contact:
Prof. Steffen Marx
Institute of Concrete Structures at TU Dresden
Tel. +49 351 463-35856
Email: