The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Mega construction site on the A93: Regensburg's Pfaffenstein tunnel is being renewed - 140 million euro project

2022-05-06T18:52:23.840Z


Mega construction site on the A93: Regensburg's Pfaffenstein tunnel is being renewed - 140 million euro project Created: 05/06/2022, 20:43 By: Thomas Eldersch The Pfaffensteiner Tunnel near Regensburg is around 50 years old. Now it needs to be renovated. A mega-project is approaching the region. Regensburg – It's actually only about 880 meters of road. Nevertheless, it took years to plan, chec


Mega construction site on the A93: Regensburg's Pfaffenstein tunnel is being renewed - 140 million euro project

Created: 05/06/2022, 20:43

By: Thomas Eldersch

The Pfaffensteiner Tunnel near Regensburg is around 50 years old.

Now it needs to be renovated.

A mega-project is approaching the region.

Regensburg – It's actually only about 880 meters of road.

Nevertheless, it took years to plan, check and fine-tune the implementation.

It is now clear what will happen next with the Pfaffensteiner Tunnel at the A93 Regensburg-Pfaffenstein junction.

On Tuesday, May 3rd, the responsible Autobahn GmbH Südbayern presented their results.

Two things are already certain - the renovation will be complex and the drivers need good nerves.

Refurbishment of the A93 Pfaffenstein tunnel: the eye of the needle near Regensburg is to disappear

In the end, those responsible had to decide between three variants.

"In coordination with the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport, the experts at Autobahn GmbH have decided on one of the three variants," says the Autobahn GmbH press release.

The expansion variant

is now being implemented

.

The lanes of the A93 are to be widened from nine to 12.5 meters.

“So far, the weaving strips have not existed in this section due to the narrow width of the tunnel tubes.

This makes the Pfaffenstein Tunnel the bottleneck of the A93 in the Regensburg area.

That should have been done with the variant in the future.

Regensburg's A93 bottleneck - the Pfaffenstein Tunnel - needs to be upgraded.

A variant has now been agreed.

© Autobahn Südbayern / Felix Bonn

But why does anything about the tunnel have to be changed at all?

The tubes are from the 1970s.

In the meantime, the concrete inner shells are in great need of renovation.

According to Autobahn GmbH, a general overhaul is required so that the flow of traffic on the A93 can be further improved.

General refurbishment of the Pfaffensteiner Tunnel: Two variants were ruled out

During the planning phase, there were three variants that were examined in detail.

One possibility would have been the

zero variant

.

In this case, new inner shells would simply have been installed in the existing tunnel.

According to Autobahn GmbH, the tubes would have been completely renewed in terms of construction and operation.

That would have taken about eleven years of construction and planning.

However, the lane width would have shrunk from nine to 7.5 meters.

So this option was ruled out.

The

new construction variant

would have been the most expensive and complex.

A third tube would have been driven through the mountain here.

A new Danube bridge would also have become necessary.

The two outer lanes would then have been extended to 12.5 meters.

The inner tunnel could have served as an emergency lane.

However, the variant would have severely interfered with existing protected areas and private property with residential buildings would have been affected.

In addition: "If a complicated and lengthy planning approval procedure were to be expected, the planning and construction time would take at least 22 years." However, with such a long implementation time, the existing tunnel would still have to be repaired.

So the zero variant

would come again

for use.

This option was also ruled out.

A93 near Regensburg: expansion variant for the Pfaffensteiner tunnel

So it has become the

expansion variant

.

Autobahn GmbH is assuming a planning and construction period of around 13 years.

The costs are estimated at around 140 million euros.

Now it's time to delve deeper into the specialist planning.

Drivers can expect significant disruptions.

"Repairing a bottleneck like the Pfaffenstein tunnel means significant additional traffic restrictions during the construction period," says Autobahn GmbH.

"During the construction phase of the expansion variant, the impact on traffic is estimated to be the lowest according to the status of the preliminary investigations, but only three lanes will probably be usable in the tunnel for at least 3.5-4 years."

The roadway width of the Regensburg Pfaffenstein Tunnel is to be widened from 9 to 12.5 meters.

© Motorway Southern Bavaria

The District Administrator of the district of Regensburg, Tanja Schweiger (free voters), was happy about the decision: "Significant improvements for the transport network in the region seem within reach - which in this complexity still means around a decade." The general repair and the expansion of the tubes will further increase traffic safety on the A93, according to Schweiger.

"Nevertheless, the renovation of the first tube in particular will be a multi-year challenge for the region."

(tel)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-06

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-08T13:28:19.272Z
News/Politics 2024-02-08T07:33:00.907Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.