is a German

Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

. It consists of three main parts and a few smaller parts. It begins in Aachen at the German–Belgian border and ends near Kassel. Before the German unification it was an unimportant provincial motorway but after this event it became an integral part of the German highway system. The A 44 is a highly frequented link between the Rhine-Ruhr-Area and the new German states, especially Thuringia, and by proxy, eastern European states like Poland and Ukraine.

History of construction

The first section of this motorway which was opened was the connection between Aachen and the interchange Aachen. This was in 1963.

Auxiliary runway for military aircraft

The section Geseke-Büren was constructed as an auxiliary runway. This section is even and straight, without any constructions like bridges and the crash-barriers can be taken out. It was constructed to be a runway for US-military aircraft in a war with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

's opponent, the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...

. At both ends of the section there are parking lots for parking and maintenance of the aircraft.

International E-road network

The Lichtenbusch-interchange Aachen section is part of the European route E 40. Between interchange Dortmund-Unna and interchange Kassel-Süd (Kassel south) the A 44 is part of the European route E 331.

Constructions

Interchange Neersen

Interchange Neersen is a typical cloverleaf interchange. After the opening of the Flughafenbrücke near Düsseldorf Airport the connections to and from the A 52 were extended. Since the opening two ramps have been closed. If you enter the network at Mönchengladbach-Ost you cannot change directly to the Roermond-bound direction of A 52 and if you approach from Krefeld, you cannot change directly to the Düsseldorf-bound direction. To reactivate these connections two new bridges are necessary. Construction has been in progress since January 2006. When construction is complete the interchange will have the following connections:

Connections from A 44 to A 52

Connections from A 52 to A 44

Plans

Extension near Kassel

Near Kassel, the Autobahn will be extended to

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. The following sections are planned:

Demolition of a section

The interchange Jackerath-interchange Holz section and the junction Otzenrath were permanently closed to traffic on 14 October 2005. The reason for the closure was the open mine at Garzweiler II. Before this section was closed, the Bundesautobahn 61 was widened from two to three lanes in each direction. For the closed junction the junction Mönchengladbach-Wanlo was constructed. When the open cast mine was exhausted, expected in 2017, a new section of the A 44 was built across the A 61. This new route is built to the south of the old route, and the new junction Jackerath is now located south of the old one. This section was taken out of the official network-register in November 2005 and is no longer officially a Bundesautobahn.

Exit list

, , ''

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

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External links

{{Authority control 44 A044 A044 A044