Transport in Cologne

Their development originated in the work of architects and urban designers such as Karl Henrici, Josef Stübben and Fritz Schumacher as well as former Cologne mayors Hermann Heinrich Becker and Konrad Adenauer.

Freeway construction became a major issue in Cologne starting in the 1920s under the leadership of Mayor Konrad Adenauer.

Shortly after the Second World War reconstruction plans by, among others, Rudolf Schwarz called for a downtown bypass freeway (the "Stadtautobahn" (in German)) as a centerpiece of rebuilding the city.

The completed section became Bundesstraße (Federal Road) B 55a which begins at the Zoobrücke (Zoo Bridge) and meets with A 4 and A 3 autobahns at the Cologne East interchange.

In 2005 the first stretch of A 3 between the Cologne East and Heumar interchanges, which forms part of the eastern section of the beltway, was widened to 8 lanes.

Work continues on widening the remaining portions of the A 3 between the Cologne East and Leverkusen interchanges.

Cologne also has Thalys train service to connect to cities in different countries such as Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris.

Underground construction in the downtown Cologne area is often obstructed by the fact that archeologists in Cologne, one of Germany's oldest cities, have legal rights to dig in all future building sites within the medieval city limits before all heavy construction machinery.

This building was adjoined by an extension in 2000, called Terminal 2, which has been planned by German-American architect Helmut Jahn.

Terminal 1, which the building from 1970 is called since then, had already acquired preservation status for its easily recognizable brutalist concrete architecture.