is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Dortmund in the west with Hanau in the southwest. It is colloquially known by its byname Sauerlandlinie, which derives from the Sauerland, the landscape which said autobahn is running through between the cities of Hagen and Siegen. Many people think of it as the Queen of autobahns, for no autobahn runs over a greater number of bridges. The highest bridge is the Talbrücke Sichter between Lüdenscheid and Meinerzhagen at 530 metres above mean sea level.

History

During the 1960s and 1970s a southward extension, then called „Odenwald-Neckar-Alb-Autobahn“ (ONAA) was proposed to pass via Groß-Umstadt, Michelstadt, Schwaigern, Neckarwestheim, Mundelsheim, Berglen, Remshalden, Lichtenwald and Schlierbach, linking the ONAA to the A 8 near Kirchheim unter Teck, however the project was abandoned due to ecological reasons in 1979 by the state government of Baden-Württemberg.

Trajectory

The A 45 branches off the A 2 at the Kreuz Dortmund Nord-West, passes through the eastern Ruhr area and enters the Sauerland near Hagen.

It then enters the Siegerland and the state of Hesse, where the A 45 is joined by the A 66 between the interchanges Hanauer Kreuz and Langenselbolder 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