is an autobahn in Germany, connecting

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

in the west with Aschaffenburg in the southwest. It is colloquially known as the ''Sauerlandlinie'' (Sauerland line) as it runs through the hilly, rural

Sauerland The Sauerland () is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited. The Sauerland is the largest tourist region in ...

region between

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

and Siegen. The A45 has many bridges to cross valleys, the highest of which is the Sichter Valley bridge (''Talbrücke Sichter'') between Lüdenscheid and Meinerzhagen at 530 metres above mean sea level. It is mostly two lanes each way with frequent climbing lanes between Dortmund-Hafen and the Gambacher Kreuz intersection. In March 2013 30 people were injured in a pile-up on the A45.

History

During the 1960s and 1970s a southward extension was proposed as the „Odenwald-Neckar-Alb-Autobahn“ (ONAA), to pass through

Groß-Umstadt Groß-Umstadt is a town in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany. It is near by Darmstadt and Frankfurt on the northern border of mountain range Odenwald and is on the south-eastern edge of Rhine- ...

, Michelstadt, Schwaigern, Neckarwestheim, Mundelsheim,

Berglen Berglen is a municipality in the district of Rems-Murr in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Geographical location The community Berglen is located about 25 kilometers east of Stuttgart in 300 to 450 meters altitude in the Keuper hill la ...

, Remshalden,

Lichtenwald Lichtenwald is a town in the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe a ...

and Schlierbach, linking the ONAA to the A 8 near Kirchheim unter Teck, however the project was abandoned for ecological reasons in 1979 by the state government of Baden-Württemberg.

Trajectory

The A 45 branches off the A 2 at the Dortmund Nord-West intersection, passes through the eastern Ruhr area and enters the

near

. It then enters the

Siegerland The Siegerland is a region of Germany covering the old district of Siegen (now part of the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in North Rhine-Westphalia) and the upper part of the district of Altenkirchen, belonging to the Rhineland-Palatinate adjoin ...

and the state of Hesse, where the A 45 is joined by the A 66 between the interchanges ''

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

er Kreuz'' and ''

Langenselbold Langenselbold () is a town in the Main-Kinzig district, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated on the river Kinzig, 10 km east of Hanau. In 2009, the town hosted the 49th Hessentag The Hessentag (; en, Hesse Day) is an annual event, both fai ...

er Dreieck''. A short stretch of road, between junctions Alzenau and Mainhausen, is on Bavarian territory, then the A 45 merges with the A 3 at the interchange ''Seligenstädter Dreieck'' in the state of Hesse, just to the west of the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg.

Numerical listing of Exits and Junctions

External links

{{bundesautobahn 45 A045 A045 A045