An innovative 4‐track railway crossing is being built over the Neckar River between Stuttgart and Bad Cannstatt. This crossing is part of the major project ”Stuttgart 21“ and will serve as a supply line for long‐distance trains as well as local S‐Bahn traffic to the new underground station in downtown Stuttgart. The current bridge design, which is presently under construction, is based on the proposal of a ”steel sail bridge“ that was selected as the winner of a design competition in 1998. The „steel sail“, which is a key characteristic of the design, makes use of high‐strength fine‐grain structural steel plates. This is the first time that such plates are being used for a railway bridge within the Deutsche Bahn AG’s (DB AG) network.
In addition to a brief description of the bridge or rather the structure, the article focuses on the peculiarities of planning these thick plates.