is an autobahn in Germany running from the Germany-Netherlands border near Wesel in the northwest to the Germany-Austria border near Passau.
Major cities along its total length of 778 km (483 mi) include Oberhausen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Leverkusen, Cologne, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Würzburg, Nuremberg and Regensburg. The A 3 is a major connection between the Rhine-Ruhr area and southern Germany, resulting in heavy traffic. Consequently, large parts have three lanes (plus a hard shoulder) in each direction, including a 300 km (187.5 mi) section between Oberhausen and Aschaffenburg.
The A3 passes close to Frankfurt Airport.
Route
The A 3 begins at the border crossing Elten in North Rhine-Westphalia as a four-lane continuation of the Dutch A 12. Until Oberhausen the highway runs on the right bank of the Lower Rhine past the cities Emmerich, Wesel and Dinslaken and reaches the Ruhrgebiet. Beginning at the Kreuz Oberhausen with A 516 and A 2, the A 3 is a three-lane freeway in both directions. A 3 runs parallel to the A 59 between Dinslaken and Düsseldorf before bypassing the latter to the east. Outside of Düsseldorf the A 3 runs parallel to the A 59, the latter of which forming an alternative route between the cities Düsseldorf and Cologne. From Leverkusen, where the A 3 (Fehmarn-Saarbrücken) intersects the A 1, the A 3 forms the eastern part of the Cologne Ring. Due to the very high volume of traffic, this section is often congested, which is why a section between Cologne-Mülheim and the Heumar triangle has been expanded to eight lanes. Between Cologne-Ost and Heumarer Dreieck, the A 4 (Aachen-Olpe) runs on a common route with the A 3. After Cologne, the motorway reverts to six lanes and reaches Siegburg, where it intersects with A 560 at the interchange Bonn / Siegburg. The landscape becomes rather hilly soon after, winding through the Siebengebirge and the Westerwald and entering Rhineland-Palatinate.
The motorway is marked by numerous gradients around this point, the best known of which are in the Hallerbachtal and Elzer Berg. Between Cologne and Frankfurt am Main the A 3 runs largely parallel to the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line. At the Dreieck Dernbach, not far from Koblenz, the A48 branches off to Trier. The A 3 then reaches Montabaur is connected before the Limburg area and the motorway continues into Hesse, after which the A 3 continues as eight lanes. Then the route leads over the Taunus into the plain of the Rhine-Main area. At the Wiesbadener Kreuz the A 3 intersects the 66, which connects the two largest cities of the region, Frankfurt am Main and the provincial capital Wiesbaden. After crossing the Main on the Mainbrücke Raunheim, the A67 branches off from the A 3, forming a route to Stuttgart as well as to Switzerland. Immediately thereafter, the A 3 crosses the grounds of Frankfurt Airport. Two runway bridges connect the northwest runway to the north of the highway. Also, the airport's ICE station is just north of the A 3, which cross pedestrians on a bridge to get from the station to the terminals. Afterwards the A 3 intersects the A 5 at Germany's most used interchange, the Frankfurter Kreuz (Kassel-Basel).
The A 3 passes through a largely forested area until Aschaffenburg, passing the city of Frankfurt am Main proper to the south with eight lanes; the Frankfurt-Süd junction, which is located near the Commerzbank-Arena, is the only direct link with Frankfurt. It intersects with A 661 near Offenbach, continuing from this point as six lanes towards Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Seligenstadt, which are also connected with one interchange. As the A 3 enters Bavaria, it intersects with the A 45, crossing the Main on the Mainbrücke Stockstadt and Aschaffenburg and the suburbs Goldbach and Hösbach. There are two overhead noise barriers on this part with a length of 2.2 kilometers altogether.
Behind the third Main Crossing on the Main Bridge Bettingen the highway runs rather briefly (approximately six kilometers) through Baden-Württemberg. Shortly before Helmstadt, the highway is again six lanes and bypasses Würzburg to the south, after the triangle Würzburg-West. South of Würzburg the A 3 crosses the Main for the fourth time. The A 3 then intersects the A 7 (Flensburg-Füssen), after which the A 3 switches to four lanes. It then crosses the Main for a fifth time and continues towards Nuremberg. This section leads through the Steigerwald and has a high traffic volume. Passing Höchstadt and Erlangen, Nuremberg is bypassed to the northeast. Outside of Nuremberg, the A 3 intersects with the A 9 (Berlin-Munich) and the A 6 (Saarbrücken-Prague).
After Nuremberg, the A 3 passes Neumarkt-Oberpfalz, crosses the Franconian Alps and reaches the Danube valley at Regensburg. Towards Passau, the highway runs parallel to the river past Straubing and Deggendorf (A 92 to Munich), traversing through the foothills of the Bavarian Forest. Outside of Passau, the route turns south, passes through the Neuburg Forest and crosses the Inn, the border between Germany and Austria. A 3 continues on the Austrian side is the Innkreisautobahn A 8, which continues to Linz.
History
The first plans for the northern section between Emmerich and Oberhausen, the so-called "Holland line" (Reichsautobahnstrecke 92), date to 1936. Despite difficulties in the route definition (industrial areas in Oberhausen and Dinslaken are crossed) was already in July 1939 with the construction to be started. Because of the Second World War, the construction work had to be stopped that October until July 1940. . Up to about a third of the earthworks were completed. The route was already cleared and construction had started on 29 buildings.
The first plans for the Cologne-Düsseldorf route go back to 1925. In 1929 the Provincial Association of the Prussian Rhine Province legally established the route between Cologne-Düsseldorf and in 1931 the construction started of a 2.5-kilometer section at Opladen. It was opened on 27 September 1933 and shortened the section of trunk road 8 between the two cities. The southern part of this route was not further upgraded and included in a simple bypass, now part of the B 8 / L 288 (Bonner road).
In the years up to 1940, the rest of the Reichsautobahn Oberhausen (following the A 2) was built over Cologne to Wiesbaden sections. The 25-kilometer section from Cologne-Mülheim to Mettmann was opened on 21 May 1936 to traffic. In the same year, the section from Breitscheid to Oberhausen-Lirich / Duisburg-Meiderich was completed in the northerly direction. In 1937, the northern continuation of the current motorway junction Oberhausen and the gap closure between Mettmann and Breitscheid followed.
The southern route allowed the direction Reichsautobahnen simultaneously from both Cologne in the south and Wiesbaden in the north. The section between the interchange Köln-Mülheim and Siegburg 30 km in length was handed over on 17 December 1937 after about three years of construction time traffic. One year later, on 15 December 1938, the 12 km section was taken to the junction Siebengebirge and on 20 September 1939 followed by another 30 km to Dierdorf.
The southern section with 48 km length between the former junction Wiesbaden, today's Wiesbadener Kreuz, and the junction Limburg-Nord was opened on 23 September 1939 traffic. The most elaborate structure in this section was the then approximately 500 m long and 60 m high Lahntalbrücke. The 41.5 km long gap between Limburg and Dierdorf took place on 15 June 1940. The construction of the section south of the Wiesbadener cross with the Main Bridge between Raunheim and Eddersheim was started in 1938, but had to be discontinued in early 1943. The section from Erlangen to the Nuremberg junction was completed in 1941, partly in one lane.Liste auf Autobahn-Online.de.
In 1937, planning for the motorway section from Nuremberg via Regensburg to Passau was begun. In the area between Nuremberg and Oberpfraundorf, however, a different route was chosen than the later built. The original route led over the area of the enlarged military training area Hohenfels after the Second World War. Also, in contrast to today running south of the city A 3 Deggendorf north should be bypassed. After 1939 already in some sections on the Franconian Alb and Wörth on the Danube and Deggendorf with earthworks and bridge construction work was started, they stopped the work, as on the northern section, 1942 due to the war. In the course of this work, the construction of a Danube bridge near Regensburg was started.
After the war, in 1958 with the continuation of construction of the line Emmerich-Oberhausen ("Holland Line") started. In 1961, the 17.5 km long section from the cross Oberhausen to Wesel was completed. Already two years earlier, in 1959, the construction of the "Zubringers Oberhausen" as the southern extension of the road to the B 223 (today's A 516) began. Also the 7.2 km long section between the border crossing Elten and Emmerich has already been built. This was then in an area that was still under Dutch administration until 1962, the construction was in collaboration with the Dutch Road Administration. The road cross section, however, corresponded to the German standard. The construction work was completed in 1962 and completed the section.
In 1963, both the "Oberhausen connection" south of the Oberhausen cross and the section between Wesel and Hamminkeln were released. The total distance from Oberhausen to the Dutch border was completed in 1965. In June 1950, the construction work on the motorway south of Wiesbaden was resumed. The completion of the 3.5 km section to Weilbach was 1951, the following 17.4 km to Frankfurt-South were inaugurated on 10 July 1956. This was near the Frankfurt Rhein-Main airport for linking with the Federal Highway 5, the Frankfurter Kreuz and thus the first motorway junction in West Germany.
The 214 km section from Frankfurt to Erlangen-Tennenlohe was built within nine years. The total cost amounted to about one billion DM. During construction, 21 construction workers were killed. From 15 December 1959, the highway with the maximum four percent steep Spessart climb to Rohrbrunn was passable. The traffic clearance to Würzburg-West followed on 27 October 1961. On the way to the Nuremberg area was gradually built in the next few years. The 42 km long piece of the gap between Rottendorf and Schlüsselfeld was handed over to traffic on 26 November 1964. The line was equipped with a total of 54 rest stops in the direction of Nuremberg and 64 in the direction of Frankfurt as well as four rest stops. Between Aschaffenburg and Würzburg 11 springs and wells were offered to motorists.Der Bundesminister für Verkehr, die Oberste Baubehörde im Bayerischen Staatsministerium für Verkehr: Bundesautobahn Frankfurt Nürnberg, Druckhaus Nürnberg 1964.
From Tennenlohe to the cross Nuremberg, the highway was already passable in 1941, but only in the section AS Nuremberg / Behringersdorf to AS Nürnberg-Mögeldorf two lanes. The complete release for this area could take place only 1959. The route was from 19 December 1963 from Nuremberg to Schlüsselfeld passable.
After the plans for the motorway section Nuremberg-Regensburg-Passau were resumed in 1958, due to the training area Hohenfels the originally planned and partly built track could not be further developed, they decided on a route through Altorf, Neumarkt and Parsberg, the at Oberpfraundorf again on the prewar road encounters. This could be largely retained in the course.
The 25.5 km long section Nittendorf-Rosenhof could be completed as early as 1965, the western adjoining, 25 km long section Parsberg-Nittendorf 1969. In 1971, the A 3 in the direction of Nuremberg was already passable for another 27.6 km to Neumarkt. Since then, the motorway from the Dutch border to the east of Regensburg (junction Rosenhof) was continuously passable.