© Domingos Oliveira / RTL
The new Emile Hammerel bridge in Bettembourg will open to traffic on 4 April, restoring a vital transport link after a year-long rebuild that disrupted thousands of daily commuters.
The new Emile Hammerel bridge in Bettembourg will officially open to road traffic on 4 April, following a year-long reconstruction project. A public opening ceremony will take place at 5pm, as announced by local authorities on social media.
The 148-metre-long bowstring bridge replaces the previous structure, which stood for nearly 50 years before being demolished in March 2024 due to structural disrepair. The new bridge stands 22.5 metres above the railway tracks, weighs 1,300 tonnes, and includes 2.5-metre-wide mixed-use paths on both sides for pedestrians and cyclists.
Although the traffic lanes are slightly narrower, the bridge now meets modern rail and mobility standards.
The reopening restores a key traffic link over the railway in the heart of Bettembourg, just days after the nearby A3 motorway expansion between Berchem and Gasperich. The project had caused major disruptions on the N13 road, which sees over 10,000 vehicles daily, and affected operations at Bettembourg station – the country's second busiest railway junction.
From mid-July to mid-September 2024, no trains ran between Bettembourg and Luxembourg due to the works, impacting thousands of cross-border commuters and users of lines 60 and 90, who had to rely on replacement buses. The new bridge was installed in July 2024, marking a major milestone in the region's infrastructure modernisation.
