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- Bus stop available
Wegeringhausen Tunnel (cycle tunnel)
Industrial culture
In 1903, the Bergneustadt-Olpe line, the last section of a rail link from southern Westfalen to Cologne in the Rhineland, was opened. To achieve this, the watershed between the Biggen and Agger had to be overcome, or better still undercut, with a 724 m long tunnel 50 m below the village of Wegeringhausen. Over 15,000 m³ of rock was removed from the mountain and used on both sides of the railroad line and on the site of Hützemert station.
Address
Wegeringhausen Tunnel (cycle tunnel)
Zum Wiesental
57489 Drolshagen
Properties:
The tunnel vault is extremely thick. At the time, the vault was planned to be half a meter thick. In the end, however, it became a whole meter. However, this caused the construction costs to skyrocket. The planned 753,000 Reichsmark became over a million. The sudden increase in the cost of a construction project is therefore not a phenomenon of our time. But the cost-intensive and exceptionally stable construction had one advantage: the tunnel is still in first-class condition today.
The construction of the tunnel also required a lot of Italian migrant workers at the time, some of whom discovered their love for Drolshagen and stayed. That's why, if you look in a Drolshagen phone book, you'll find a few Italian names, such as the Tomasetti family, who can justifiably call themselves "long-established".
The last train passed through the tunnel in 1993. At 724 meters, it is the longest cycle tunnel in Westfalen and the Rhineland. (in Germany, only one tunnel in the Rhön is longer)
The tunnel is closed every year from November to mid-April. This is when rare protected bat species spend the winter there.
The Agger-Bigge-Runde and the Bergische Panoramaradweg, which joins the Ruhr-Sieg-Radweg near Olpe, run through the Wegeringhausen Tunnel, which is now a listed building. This even creates a connection to the RuhrtalRadweg. For cyclists, this is a unique way of opening up the Bergisches Land, Sauerland and Siegerland regions.
Text: Drolshagen Marketing e. V.
Prices
Free admission:
Leaflet © OpenStreetMap contributors
Directions
We recommend traveling by car to Drolshagen-Hützemert, parking lot "Alter Bahnhof".
