The Neckar Bridge at Weitingen, built in 1979, is situated on the A81 Stuttgart-Singen autobahn at km 629/630 between the junctions for Rottenburg (km 621) and Horb (km 632).

The bridge superstructure has an overall length of 900.5 meters and a width of 15.83 meters. It is a steel structure. On account of the large movements of +/- 575 mm the roadway transitions installed at the time were roller shutter joints of the System Sollinger Hütte type.
After 23 trouble-free years (with only a reworking of the slide faces on the blocks) the owner had decided to replace the existing structures. The main reason was the wear that had again become apparent in the steel-on-steel sliding counterfaces. This arrangement is no longer state of the art.
Therefore, in the summer of 2002 the German Federal Highways Administration, represented by the State of Baden-Württemberg, in turn represented by the Singen Autobahn Traffic Department, requested bids for the following renovation works:

The roadway transition at the southern abutment (direction Stuttgart-Singen) - a multi-plate roller shutter supplied by Sollinger Hütte in 1979 - to be replaced by a roller shutter roadway transition of type "System Lange" or equivalent.

The new joint had to be suitable for handling the greatly increased average traffic load of 45,000 vehicles, 15% of which were trucks.
Other service criteria for the new expansion joint were:
- low generation of noise (low-noise construction)
- long life
- small number of wear parts

The request for quotation envisioned the complete replacement of the roller shutter including the existing substructures. After examining the present joint structure Sollinger Hütte suggested retaining the slide blocks connected to the bridge and modernizing them in line with the latest engineering practices.
Besides the significant cost saving compared to the official draft, this also avoided the need for major structural work.
Federal-Mogul Sollinger Hütte GmbH from Uslar, a highly regarded system supplier of structural bearings and expansion joints and above all a specialist in replacement and reconstruction of all kinds of roller shutter joints, was commissioned with the work in summer 2002.
The new plates, equipped with a skid safeguard with combined noise reducing effect, were prefabricated at the Uslar factory and installed on schedule in June 2003 after reworking of the substructural components.
The decision to award the contract to Sollinger Hütte, a company couched in tradition and today part of the American Federal Mogul Group, was based both on cost aspects and the desire to have the reconstruction and renovation of the existing roller shutter structure done by an acknowledged specialist contractor. The owner once again decided on a roller shutter construction as this type, with very few, robust components, has the longest life expectancy and is therefore the most economical solution.
Unlike the roller shutter designs of the 60's and 70's, which have all steel-on-steel sliding contact of the plates on the blocks, the new Sollinger Hütte roller shutter joints have a modern plate sliding system composed of a bronze backing sliding on a stainless steel slide strip and including a shock-absorbing elastomeric cushion.
Another essential improvement is the now standard multishear bolt linkage between the plates.
This manner of construction additionally has the benefit of reduced noise, as the roller shutter has no transverse gaps and does not cause the disturbing grating noise experienced with today's often used multi-element expansion joints.
Furthermore, the existing plates can be replaced lane by lane, so construction times are shorter, traffic flow can be better managed and there is less inconvenience for road users.

This project plainly demonstrated that roller shutter joints will continue to be installed increasingly in future and existing ones will be retained. Additionally, a roller shutter can handle the ever larger movements that occur