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Criticism of Sallern's rainbow bridge: "Transport policy dinosaur" leads through bat territory

2022-07-05T20:11:01.772Z


Criticism of Sallern's rainbow bridge: "Transport policy dinosaur" leads through bat territory Created: 07/05/2022, 10:00 p.m According to a visualization by the city of Regensburg, the Sallern Rain Bridge could look like this. © City of Regensburg After a court stopped the planning for the Sallern Rain Bridge in 2015, it has now been resumed. Associations and citizens' initiatives are critical


Criticism of Sallern's rainbow bridge: "Transport policy dinosaur" leads through bat territory

Created: 07/05/2022, 10:00 p.m

According to a visualization by the city of Regensburg, the Sallern Rain Bridge could look like this.

© City of Regensburg

After a court stopped the planning for the Sallern Rain Bridge in 2015, it has now been resumed.

Associations and citizens' initiatives are critical.

regensburg

– Important transport project or transport policy dinosaur?

The opinions about the sense and purpose of the Sallern Rain Bridge have diverged in Regensburg since the beginning of the planning.

And now there is clear resistance again.

At the weekend, several initiatives and associations invited to an on-site appointment at the Lappersdorfer Kreisel.

Criticism of the traffic project in Regensburg: "Why do we still need this bridge?"

And the Regensburg chairman of the Verkehrsclub Deutschland, Wolfgang Bogie, poses the central question that worries them all: "Why do we still need the Sallern rain bridge?" The planned route is clearly visible on a map that he brought with him.

It is intended to connect both banks of the Regen and connect the Nordgaustraße, which will then be expanded, to the A93 motorway and the Lappersdorfer Kreisel.

Planning for the bridge began in the early 2000s, but the idea itself is much older.

And also the resistance to it.

Several lawsuits were filed with the Bavarian Administrative Court against the planning approval decision of 2014.

In 2015, the court temporarily stopped the project.

The necessary environmental impact assessment (EIA) was missing.

Criticism of Sallerner Regenbrücke: "Completely outdated"

A few weeks ago, the supplemented plan approval decision with EIA came.

However, the opponents of the bridge do not see that something should have improved as a result.

On the contrary.

Due to the time that has now elapsed, the Sallern rain bridge has "overtaken itself", Bogie states.

The underlying traffic forecasts are "completely outdated", many developments of the last few years are simply not taken into account.

The VCD chairman speaks, for example, of the "home office effect" caused by Corona.

Cycling has changed.

New routes have been created or are currently being planned.

The three-lane expansion of the Pfaffenstein Tunnel was also decided.

All of this has an impact on traffic planning, but would not be taken into account in the case of the rain bridge.

Environmentalists sound the alarm: bridge leads through an important area for bats

Left City Councilor Irmgard Freihoffer speaks of a "transport policy dinosaur".

It calls for a so-called strategic environmental assessment (SEA).

This is a European directive that checks significantly more factors than the EIA mentioned.

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This makes Albrecht Muscholl-Silberhorn, 2nd chairman of the Bund Naturschutz (BN) Regensburg, sit up and take notice.

Because the area on which the bridge is to run is declared an FFH area (Flora-Fauna-Habitat) and thus a European protected area.

It is an important area for bats and numerous bird species.

The rain also represents a central aisle of fresh air for Regensburg, according to Muscholl-Silberhorn.

Traffic club warns: Bridge causes more traffic and CO2

"The current report also states that nature would be adversely affected," says Muscholl-Silberhorn several times.

But later in the report you hear nothing more about it.

The "noble climate and environmental protection goals" of politics and the "greatest laws" are worth little in the end if there is no will to implement them.

According to Bogie, 25 to 30,000 cars would come into the city every day via the planned route, Bogie calculates.

Instead of relief, there will be more traffic and more CO2.

This is also why the car bridge is wrong.

Possible alternatives were never considered in the planning.

(By the way: Our brand new Regensburg newsletter will keep you regularly informed about all the important stories from the World Heritage city and the Upper Palatinate. Register here.)

Demand: More public transport funding instead of bridge building

Some time ago, the VCD suggested that the B15, which currently runs along Amberger Straße to Regensburg, be relocated to the B16.

It is already directly connected to the autobahn via the Lappersdorfer Kreisel.

A little further north of the planned Sallerner Regenbrücke, the B16 runs over the Regen and north of Regensburg.

According to the VCD, traffic could then be diverted around the city center on Pilsen-Allee and Odessa-Ring.

This will bring the hoped-for relief without major construction projects.

In general, however, the associations actually want fewer cars in the city.

The VCD therefore calls for an extensive redesign of the public transport system in the city and district.

And in this respect, a bridge from Sallern to Lappersorf would be possible, says Bogie.

However, for the environmental association: pedestrians, cyclists and light rail.

A flyover instead of the previously planned "monster part," as Bogie calls it.

"Put the project on hold"

His suggestion is that Lappersdorf could be connected to the city center via the Stadtbahn line.

Especially since the city is also in talks with Deutsche Bahn for S-Bahn-like traffic in the Regensburg region.

For commuters, this is an enormous increase in quality, "as you would otherwise know from regions like Munich or Nuremberg," says Bogie.

An "attractive mobility hub" in Lappersdorf.

The majority of the population sees Bogie on his side.

In a representative survey of 2,700 citizens on the new "Urban Development Concept 2040", around two thirds of those questioned spoke out in favor of expanding public transport and cycling.

Bogie's conclusion and demand for politicians: "Put the Sallerner Regenbrücke project aside and expand the railway and light rail as quickly as possible, closing the infrastructure gaps for cycling."

Sallern rainbow bridge threatens the nursery

It is currently unclear whether the Sallerner Regenbrücke project has any future at all.

Most recently, there was another two-week period for filing complaints.

The VGH in Munich will also deal with the pending lawsuits again.

They just rested for the past few years.

One of the plaintiffs is Gerhard Hauner.

He already filed a lawsuit in 2014.

Because Hauner would be directly affected by the construction of the bridge.

In Lappersdorf, between the Autobahn and Regen, he runs a large nursery on around 13,000 square meters.

"If the bridge were to be built, we would be expropriated on a large scale," he says.

The nursery is right where the bridge is supposed to land.

“We would have to leave several greenhouses.” At least 3,000 square meters would probably be lost.

"For us, this is an existential threat," says Hauner.

(Michael Bothner)

All news from Regensburg and the surrounding area are always up to date and only available from us.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-07-05

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