Men at Work

Presently Freiburg is a major construction site. Four of our five streetcar lines between Bertoldsbrunnen (city center) and Stadttheater (municipal theater) are cut for two weeks. The Städtischen Verkehrbetriebe VAG (municipal transport authorities) install a railroad crossing on Rotteckring for the future line running in front of the new university library. At the same time, they renew the rails in the neighborhood.

Look into Bertoldstraße.
The new railroad crossíng, aligning, measuring, and re-aligning.

New switches connect the Rotteckring line with Bertoldsbrunnen.
In the background is the municipal theater and, to the left, the new university library.

You must take a march of nearly half a kilometer on a crowded narrow sidewalk between the streetcar stations Stadttheater and Bertoldsbrunnen along those fascinating construction activities. The pedestrian traffic is dense, and so many people must take the walk that you are sure to run into people you know what I did. 

However, standing there and chatting means a traffic jam for all the others passing by. Most are in a hurry to make the junction between the streetcar lines ending or passing Bertoldsbrunnen and those terminating at Stadttheater.

Note the historical Pfennig in the pavement.

Nevertheless, a few people just stop and watch the men at work.

Welding of the rail joints ...

... and grinding the rail surface flat afterward.

Posing rail clamps. The new rails are provisionally supported by stone blocks.

Look between the feet of the man who is installing the clamps. Their fixing bolts are cast into a concrete bed and tightened when the concrete is dry. In 25 years, replacing the worn-out rails will be easy by fixing the new ones with the existing clamps. In the upper half of the photo note, the finished and already paved rail track on its concrete bed with a lateral rubber band against noise. 

Addendum 1: On Monday, June 6, at 5 p.m., the regular streetcar schedule was re-established.

Note the railroad crossing in the background, the stub of the switch for the new line in front,
and the unfinished paving that will be completed during the coming weekends.
(©BZ/Thomas Kunz)

Addendum 2: On Friday, June 10, streetcar line 4 passes the finished crossing while rail work continues on the new Rotteckring line and switches to the left. The municipal theater and the new university library are in the background.

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