Nordholz-Neuenwalde highway strip

53°43'06"N 008°39'47"E

Runway: 18/36 - 2400x...m/...feet - concrete

Nordholz-Neuenwalde Highway strip (german: Autobahn-Behelfslandeplatz Nordholz or Notlandeplatz II/6) was a stretch of highway (german: Autobahn) in the Autobahn A27, between the intersections of Neuenwalde and Wanhöden.
Because NATO planners feared a Soviet surprise attack might render NATO airfields unusable, a number of preplanned emergency airstrips were constructed in Germany's extensive Autobahn network. At a glance they would appear to be normal stretches of Autobahn, but they were rapidly convertible into runways, capable of handling any NATO aircraft. Safety guiderails could be dismantled quikly and car rest stops were easily converted into aircraft platforms, one on the south side and one ot the north. Also they were provided with prepositioned communications lines, a fuel supply and electricity.
One of those emergency strips (A27 Nordholz) was located a few kilometers to the south of Nordholz Air Base. It was of a concrete construction like any highway or runway, but it lacked one major thing found at airports: an antiskid surface. It also featured one thing not normally found near the end or begin of a runway: a 7,5 meter tall bridge crossing the highway.

The emergency airbase was used only once, in February 1982 during NATO Exercise "Highway'82". During the exercise it functioned as a fully fledged airfield, featuring things like security, radios, TACAN, Precision Approach Radar, communications, cross-servicing, a fire brigade and a weather bureau. Aircraft from Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States participated in the exercise, which included anything from Fiat G91s, Harriers, F-104G Starfighters, F-4 Phantoms, AlphaJets, Fairchild A-10A and medium transport aircraft such as Hercules. Altogether 230 starts and landings were made.

With the Cold War over the German Government decided in the late 1990s that the NLPs were no longer necessary and
ordered them to be converted to normal highways. Nordholz has not been converted back yet, however.