Hundreds of people are already working in the new Achalaich industrial park between Weilheim and Polling.
But the companies there are extremely difficult to reach by bike.
That must change as quickly as possible, it was now said in Weilheim's construction committee.
There are, however, several problems.
Weilheim
- In the medium term, around a thousand people will travel to work in Achalaich more or less every day.
There are over 400 at the company "Xylem Analytics" alone, which is currently moving from Trifthof to the new, almost adjacent industrial park.
As far as the traffic situation is concerned, one can only wish that many of these employees would come to their workplaces by bike.
And basically Achalaich is also a good cycling distance, both from Polling and Weilheim.
During budget consultations, the expansion of the cycle path was canceled
But: actually reaching the intermunicipal industrial park by bike is an adventure. From Weilheim, the agricultural path is intended as an extension of the Franziskusweg as a bicycle connection. In 2018 there were already preliminary plans to manufacture these accordingly. But during the budget consultations in the Weilheim city council, this project always fell out due to lack of money.
It cannot go on like this, the BfW parliamentary group decided and officially applied to expand the cycle path connection "as quickly as possible".
Because the agricultural path is “unlit in the current state, with a gravel surface, potholes, puddles and overhanging bushes and thus hardly suitable as a daily commute by bike.
It is far from the standard of a cycle path. ”At the same time, access via the state road by bicycle is“ not acceptable for safety reasons ”.
Part of the way is not on Weilheimer Flur
The BfW also know that their demands are not easy to implement.
The first problem is that the existing path after the bridge over the Trifthofanbinder is partly on Pollinger Flur.
The city of Weilheim cannot decide on an expansion for this part.
Therefore, the decision was rather meager at first when Weilheim's building committee discussed the BfW application last week.
According to the unanimous vote, they want to hold talks with the municipality of Polling (and at the same time with Weilheim's municipal utilities) - about a short-term as well as a long-term solution.
The city building authority should also check the costs of possible lighting.
Then it has to be discussed again in the building committee.
"The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets"
One thing is certain, according to city architect Andrea Roppel-Sommer: "The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets." Even the "small" of the two expansion variants that the city had developed in 2018 would cost at least 240,000 euros today the big one with complete renovation and lighting even with three quarters of a million. And one more problem: Because the construction work had to be put out to tender across Europe, implementation in 2022 would probably no longer be possible.
At the same time, according to Roppel, there are no other solutions in sight.
In any case, an alternative proposal that the BfW cited was not feasible.
In its motion, the parliamentary group also asked to check whether “the unfavorable and wide western loop over Pollinger Flur can be replaced by a new branch route”.
A dirt road in the northern area, which even belongs to the city, might be a good choice for this.
But that failed because of the embankments to the Trifthof connector, explained the city master builder.
Alternative route via the Prälatenweg?
At the meeting, SPD representative Horst Martin brought a completely different route into play: it might be possible to turn an existing branch path from the Prälatenweg in the direction of Achalaich into a cycle path.
This would probably require an underpass on the state road - an underpass as there is in Weilheim, for example, under the Narbonner Ring or under the B2 between Dietlhofer See and Lena-Christ-Strasse.
“There is no simple solution,” summarized Martin.
"There mustn't be accidents first"
But a solution is needed, the building committee agreed.
At least for the time being, the existing connection in the extension of the Franziskusweg must be “inexpensively upgraded so that it can be safely driven”, emphasized BfW spokeswoman Brigitte Holeczek: “There must be no accidents first.”
Read here about expansion plans for another industrial park in Weilheim