Bomb defused on Friday Bomb discovery in Bonn-Geislar reveals puzzles
Beuel · Deutsche Bahn cannot understand why the unexploded bomb on the S-Bahn line in Beuel was overlooked during surveys before the start of construction. Work on the railway line will be suspended for the time being.
After the bomb disposal last Friday and the exploratory drilling on Sunday, construction work on the new S-Bahn line 13 between Troisdorf and Beuel has been suspended for the time being. According to a spokesperson for Deutsche Bahn, it has not yet been decided when it will be resumed. Work will definitely not continue on the section on Tuesday. “We take the whole thing very seriously and are asking ourselves how a bomb could be found during the construction work,” said the spokesperson. The area had been examined for munitions by experts before the works started and given the all clear.
The Düsseldorf district government, which is also responsible for the identification and disposal of munitions in the Cologne government district, points to the location of the bomb. “Since the bomb lay in the immediate vicinity of the track bed, it is almost impossible to identify an object of this size,” said a spokesperson for the Düsseldorf district government.
Aerial photos were assessed
As with other construction sites, Allied aerial photos from the war years were assessed before work started on the S13 route. “During the aerial photo evaluation, an impact crater of between 0.1 and 0.2 millimetres in size is necessary to identify a possible suspected unexploded bomb position in war aerial photos,” said Düsseldorf further. Should the area have been affected by munitions, further on-site investigations would be recommended.
The district government could not say on Monday whether this had happened along the S-Bahn route before the start of construction. According to the Deutsche Bahn spokesperson, the exploratory drilling on Sunday was not related to the bomb discovery. This had already been planned and would now be continued in a southerly direction. To date, no further munitions have been found.
More than 700 people in Geislar, Vilich and Vilich-Müldorf were affected by the evacuation on Friday. The A59 and B 56 train lines and tramline 66 were halted completely from the afternoon. The bomb was finally defused at 10.35pm.
(Original text: Matthias Kirch, Translation: Kate Carey)
