Bundesautobahn 5

Bundesautobahn 5

Bundesautobahn 5, which means Federal Motorway 5 in German, is a big road that stretches for 445 kilometers or 277 miles across Germany. It starts at a place called the Hattenbach triangle where it meets another road, the A 7, and ends near the Swiss border close to a city named Basel.

Along its route, it goes through two German states, Hessen and Baden-Württemberg, and links up with Switzerland’s A 2 road.

One interesting part of the A 5 is that it passes by Frankfurt Airport, making it very useful for people traveling to and from the airport. This motorway is an important connection for cars, trucks, and other vehicles moving between different parts of Germany and neighboring countries.

History

Nazi era

Construction started on the first part of the A 5 between Frankfurt and Darmstadt in 1933. The plans for a highway from Hamburg through Frankfurt to Basel began earlier but stopped until new leaders came.

Post war

After the war, plans to extend the A 5 further north stopped to protect nature. Instead, a finished piece of another highway near Gießen was used to connect the A 5 to the A 7 from Hamburg. The full route from Hamburg to Basel was finished in 1962. Near Frankfurt, the A 5 is one of the busiest roads in Germany.

The section between Frankfurt and Darmstadt was the first and remains the longest Autobahn in Germany. A special part south of Frankfurt got overhead wires in 2019 for trucks that can use electric power. Siemens made the wires and Scania AB provided the trucks.