is a German

Autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

. It consists of three main sections and a few smaller sections. It begins in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

at the German–Belgian border ( Belgian motorway A3) and ends near

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

(

Bundesautobahn 7 is the longest German Autobahn and the longest national motorway in Europe at 963 km (598 mi). It bisects the country almost evenly between east and west. In the north, it starts at the border with Denmark as an extension of the Danish part of ...

). Before

German unification The unification of Germany (, ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). It commenced ...

it was a regional motorway. In the 1990s, it became an integral part of the German motorway system. The A 44 is a heavily-used link between the Rhine-Ruhr-Area and the new German states, especially Thuringia, and also eastern European states like Poland.

History of construction

The first section of this motorway to open was the connection between Aachen and the Aachen interchange in 1963.

Auxiliary runway for military aircraft

The Geseke-Büren section was constructed as an auxiliary runway. This section is even and straight, without any constructions like bridges and the crash-barriers can be taken out. It was constructed to be a runway for US-military aircraft in the event of war with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

's opponent, the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

. At both ends of the section there are parking lots for parking and maintenance of the aircraft.

International E-road network

The Lichtenbusch-Aachen interchange section is part of the European route E 40. Between the Dortmund-Unna and Kassel-Süd (Kassel south) interchanges, the A 44 is part of the European route E 331.

Constructions

Neersen Interchange

Neersen Interchange is a typical

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange (road), interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passe ...

. After the opening of the ''Flughafenbrücke'' near

Düsseldorf Airport Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the seventh-largest city in Germany, with a 2022 population of 629,047. The Düsse ...

, the connections to and from the A 52 were extended. Since the opening, two ramps have been closed. If you enter the network at Mönchengladbach-Ost, you cannot change directly to the Roermond-bound direction of A 52. If you approach from Krefeld, you cannot change directly to the Düsseldorf-bound direction. To reactivate these connections, two new bridges are necessary. Construction has been in progress since January 2006. When construction is complete, the interchange will have the following connections:

Connections from A 44 to A 52

Connections from A 52 to A 44

Plans

Extension near Kassel

Near

, the Autobahn will be extended to

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

. The following sections are planned:

Demolition of a section

The interchange Jackerath-interchange Holz section and the Otzenrath junction were permanently closed to traffic on 14 October 2005. The reason for the closure was the open mine at Garzweiler II. Before this section was closed, the Bundesautobahn 61 was widened from two to three lanes in each direction. For the closed junction, the junction Mönchengladbach-Wanlo was constructed. When the open cast mine was exhausted, expected in 2017, a new section of the A 44 was built across the A 61. This new route is built to the south of the old route, and the new junction Jackerath is now located south of the old one. This section was taken out of the official network-register in November 2005 and is no longer officially a Bundesautobahn.

Exit list

, , ''

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

'' , - , colspan="3", ---- ''interrupted (not required)'' , - , colspan="3", ---- (touches ) , - , colspan="3", ---- , - , colspan="3", ---- , - , colspan="3", ---- , - , colspan="3", ---- , - , colspan="3", ---- ''interrupted (further need)'' , - , colspan="3", ---- , - , colspan="3", ---- , - , colspan="3", ---- } , - , colspan="3", ---- (planned / urgent need)''

References

External links

{{Authority control 44 A044 A044 A044