Traffic jam at the railway barrier: improvement is in sight

If the rail barrier goes down on Miesbacher Straße, traffic in the town center comes to a standstill.

The long closing times, caused by damaged security technology, annoy drivers and residents.

In addition, the current B 318 diversion clogs the through-town.

Now land is in sight: the knots should soon loosen.

Holzkirchen -

The nuisance goes into the seventh week: The serious rail accident at the crossing in Thann south of Holzkirchen on September 8th paralyzed the safety technology at a total of four crossings, including on the busy Miesbacher Straße (B 13) in Holzkirchen.

Since then, DB Netz, which is responsible for the infrastructure, has had the barriers closed and opened manually.

That means significantly longer closing times - and longer backlogs not only in rush hour traffic.

Because since Monday the traffic from the B 318 has been partially routed through Holzkirchen - the lane is being renewed between Lochham and Warngau - regularly nothing goes on the streets in the town center.

Mayor writes a letter to DB Netz

Mayor Christoph Schmid shakes his head - like many traffic jams and residents.

"How can it be that in the 21st century the barriers at such an important crossing have to be operated by hand for weeks because the technical building was approached at another small crossing?" The town hall chief vented his displeasure in a letter to DB Netz as he now explained in the transport committee.

The impetus was a rumor that the long closing times would not change until the end of the year - although DB had announced that it would return to normal operations at the end of October.

“It stays that way”, a railway spokesman assured our newspaper yesterday when asked.

Next week, a new technical safety device will be installed at the two busy Holzkirchen crossings in Miesbacher and Tegernseer Straße.

"The barrier posts will disappear at the end of the week," announced the spokesman.

“Provided that the new system is officially approved.” If the new technical security functions, this would significantly shorten the closing times and almost reach the normal level from before the accident.

But that is not yet a final, future-proof solution.

B 318: Blocking will be lifted on Saturday

The traffic jam situation in Holzkirchen could already relax a bit on Saturday (October 24th): The full closure of the B 318 and the associated diversion through Holzkirchen will be lifted - earlier than planned.

“The work is progressing rapidly,” says Ursula Lampe, press spokeswoman for the Rosenheim State Building Authority.

"The good and dry weather was very helpful."

The B 318 between Lochham and Warngau will be drivable again on October 24th, then on fresh asphalt.

The opening of the access routes in Lochham (MB 19) and on Ahornallee (MB 10) will follow at the end of next week, according to Lampe.

A postponement of the weather-dependent asphalting work in view of the railway barrier problem in Holzkirchen was not possible.

“But we did everything in our power to carry out the work quickly.

Thanks to the favorable weather, we have now succeeded, ”says Lampe.

Manual operation of the barriers causes longer closing times

That should also please the residents of Warngau, Osterwarngau and Schmidham.

There is also a detour route through the villages.

Because some drivers do not adhere to the temporary 30 km / h zones, the police want to be on site today, Friday, and flash.

Although relaxation is in sight in Holzkirchen, the mayor does not understand why a federal road is blocked for up to 15 minutes an hour for weeks - just because the safety mechanism of the railway barriers cannot be repaired any faster.

Instead, a lot of money is spent on a service provider to manually activate railway barriers with a key.

With the result that additional safety regulations apply.

"As soon as the train leaves the Schaftlach station in the direction of Holzkirchen, the barriers close here," says Schmid.

He imagines something different under modern infrastructure.

The town hall chief knows that over 5300 vehicles move across the Miesbacher Strasse crossing every day.

"It is regrettable that we as a community are not even informed about the longer closing times," he let DB Netz know.