Timelapse of bridge installation - U5 - Sengelmannstraße in Hamburg

MK timelapse
Jul 23
3 min read

U5 Brücke an der Sengelmannstraße, Hamburg

Bridge installation at Sengelmannstraße – filmed in timelapse by MK timelapse

Building the U5 line in Hamburg

The U5 in Hamburg is Germany’s largest new subway construction project and one of the city’s most ambitious infrastructure undertakings. Stretching around 25 kilometers with 22 new stations, it will create a completely new east-west connection through the city - linking neighborhoods like Bramfeld and Steilshoop to the city center, the university district, and the arenas in the west.

Unlike previous network extensions, the U5 is a completely new line within Hamburg’s subway system. It will operate fully automatically and entirely emission-free. Once completed, the line is expected to provide over 315,000 passengers per day with a fast, direct, and eco-friendly alternative to car travel.

One of the central hubs of this project is being built at Sengelmannstraße, where a new interchange station will connect the existing U1 with the future U5 - complete with new platforms, tracks, and bridges.

A particularly visible milestone was the bridge installation over Sengelmannstraße, a precisely coordinated operation during which two massive bridge segments - including the new U5 bridge - were inserted with millimeter accuracy.

We captured this key moment with our timelapse cameras.

Completing the U5 Bridge at Sengelmannstraße

Construction of the U5 Bridge at Sengelmannstraße, Hamburg. — New U5 Bridge at Sengelmannstraße.

First, the larger of the two bridges - the new U5 bridge, weighing around 450 tons - was pushed into its designated position above Sengelmannstraße. Just one day later, the second bridge, weighing approximately 100 tons and intended for future U1 use, was installed.

Throughout the process, operations on the adjacent U1 track continued uninterrupted. Subway trains kept running, while road traffic was temporarily rerouted.

With the placement of these two structures, the foundation is being laid at Sengelmannstraße for a four-track transfer station.

Our Documentation

For the timelapse documentation of the bridge insertion at Sengelmannstraße, we deployed two camera systems: an MK V40 with a 40-megapixel resolution, along with a supplementary webcam mounted directly onto the new U5 bridge itself.

Unlike many of our projects, where cameras remain in place for months or even years, this assignment was relatively short in duration - but extremely tightly scheduled and precisely coordinated.

MK timelapse camera installed on concrete pillar.

The main camera was mounted on a concrete pillar directly next to the existing U1 line and, equipped with a super wide-angle lens (135° field of view), provided a complete overview of the construction site.

For the actual bridge insertion, the capture interval was temporarily set to one image every 30 seconds to achieve a particularly fine resolution of the movement sequences.

During the rest of the project - from initial preparations to final completion - the system operated at a regular interval of one image per minute.

Despite the short deployment period, the project once again demonstrated how reliable and flexible our systems are - even for spontaneous, time-sensitive assignments. It also showed how well coordination can work during critical on-site operations. The additional camera angle mounted directly on the bridge provided a unique and dynamic perspective of the action, from the viewpoint of the bridge itself.

Systems

1x MK V40, 1x Webcam

Resolution

40 Megapixels

Interval

1 image every 30 seconds

Field of View

135 Degrees

Highlights

Short duration and precise timing coordination with the construction site

A Milestone

The new bridges at Sengelmannstraße mark not only a technical milestone in the construction progress of Hamburg’s U5 but also the first visible step towards connecting with the existing Hamburg U-Bahn network. For us, it was a compact yet particularly exciting project.

As a reliable partner in time-lapse documentation, we have been supporting Hamburger Hochbahn on several projects, including the renovation of the central bus stations in Harburg and Rahlstedt - both important components of the city’s mobility transition.

In the past, we have also been involved in several railway bridge constructions, where we gained valuable experience with similar construction measures.