No relief from noise and exhaust gases: Tunnels bring "massive traffic disaster"

Many see the tunnels in the district as the solution to traffic problems.

But there are others.

Like Stefan Schwaller.

He predicts significantly more vehicles and fears chaos.

District - The Oberau people long for the Oberau tunnel.

The Garmisch the Kramer tunnel, the Partenkirchner fight for their Wank tunnel, the Eschenloher for the Auerberg tunnel.

The bypasses are intended to free the towns and their citizens from traffic, noise and autogas.

That may work, says Stefan Schwaller.

But only for a short time.

And then?

“Exactly the opposite happens.” The man from Weilheim predicts a “massive traffic disaster” on the side roads in the Loisach Valley and the Upper Isar Valley.

Road expansion "promotes traffic"

In his eyes, the road expansion has never led to any relief.

“It promotes traffic.” Because it increases the permeability, removes curves, bottlenecks and traffic lights, makes driving easier.

“That means there will definitely be more cars.” In his home town of Weilheim, some see it the same way he does, together they are fighting in a citizens' initiative against the bypassing of the district town.

The 59-year-old has collected data for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district in order to show the extent of the consequences that the planned projects on the B2 and B23 will have in his eyes.

Indeed, his numbers paint a bleak picture.

But the conversation with Schwaller also shows that the projections are based on speculation.

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Stefan Schwaller is against the expansion.

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Route becomes more comfortable - "that attracts traffic"

According to his own statement, statistical surveys from the BayernAtlas in 2015 serve as the basis. According to this, the capacity of the B2 between Eschenlohe and Oberau is around 19,500 vehicles per day.

Schwaller predicts that this will quadruple.

On the one hand through the four-lane expansion (two lanes in each direction), on the other hand through the elimination of blockades such as traffic lights in the village.

In Schwaller's scenario, traffic on the B23 will triple with currently around 7,000 vehicles between Ettal and Oberau - solely because of the better expansion without sharp bends.

“It doesn't have to come to that.” But Schwaller firmly assumes it.

“Because the route becomes so much more comfortable.” That attracts traffic.

He fears final chaos for the district.

A95 becomes "a real alternative on the way south"

None of this happens overnight. First of all, the places will be relieved, the Weilheimer also believes in that. "Satisfied and happy" should be the Oberauer and Eschenloher with their bypasses for now. Maybe even for a couple of years. But then "the exact opposite happens". If word gets around how wonderful it is to get to the south via this route. On which practically nothing is slowing down the journey, after the Auerberg tunnel, against which politicians recently spoke out, and the end of the autobahn, which had acted like a funnel, also disappears. And with the Wanktunnel you would no longer have to struggle through Partenkirchen. Schwaller predicts that the A95 will be a “real alternative on the way south”. Fernpass and Zirler Berg - already polluted routes - remain as bottlenecks,where everything backs up. "A massive bypass traffic through the town through-traffic and side streets is programmed," emphasizes Schwaller. You will already feel the problems on the first sunny days and holidays, he announces. When there is block clearance at the tunnels and drivers are looking for their way through the towns.

Dobrindt and Co. consider expansion via tunnels to be absolutely necessary

Fears like these are not new.

Again and again politicians and citizens expressed the fear that the bypasses would create a new Alpine traverse.

Fears that CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt, former Federal Minister of Transport, always pushed aside.

First, they will not occur, he and his colleagues emphasize.

Second, they consider the bypasses to be imperative in order to save the region from traffic collapse.

People like Schwaller, on the other hand, are calling for the expansion of state and trunk roads to be stopped and new priorities to be set.

Specifically: to finally invest in the rail expansion and to implement the partial double-track expansion of the Werdenfels Railway between Tutzing and Murnau.

"In order to give the environment, the climate, the living space of people, animals, plants and the health of everyone appropriate weight."

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