Apologies for the German language source: https://www.spiegel.de/auto/duisburg-deutsche-bahn-sperrt-ab-freitag-wichtige-strecken-im-ruhrgebiet-a-6eda13f0-542a-41a8-9548-678f6ca7a5a3
Summary: During the fall holidays, the tracks between Düsseldorf and Duisburg are closed, because they are rebuilding the bridge on the A3. Note that traffic is still flowing on the A3, although with reduced capacity, but they’re just going to completely shut down train traffic for the two weeks of the Herbstferien.
And that section at Duisburg is a hugely important point in the network, essentially the major chokepoint of traffic serving Rheinland and Ruhrgebiet. There are lots of commuters going from the the Ruhr to Düsseldorf and vice versa–all that traffic goes through there (except one s-bahn line). Many many major north south ICE lines go through there as well, and will suffer disruptions.
I don’t know how this is negotiated between DB and the authorities responsible for Autobahn construction, but clearly someone decided that an overnight demolition of the bridge, and ensuing restriction on car traffic was less palatable than 2 weeks of disrupting trains nationally…
by NapsInNaples