Footpath and cycle path between Grafenaschau and Westried: Places do things together

Created: 01/12/2023, 12:00 p.m

By: Silke Reinbold-Jandretzki

Sometimes dangerous: the situation on Aschauer Straße, which connects Grafenaschau and Westried and is used by pedestrians and cyclists.

A separate path is to be created for these to the south-east of the road.

© Bartl

Murnau and Schwaigen are pushing ahead with an important pedestrian and cycle path project.

Together they want to close the gap between Grafenaschau and Westried up to state road 2062.

The implementation of the project, valued at almost two million euros, which would bring a big plus in security, could drag on.

Murnau

- The prehistory goes back many years to a time when Schwaigen's mayor was still called Karl Schwarzberger and in Murnau's town hall Dr.

Michael Rapp and thus the CSU ruled.

Now the time and framework conditions seem favorable for actually implementing the footpath and cycle path, which would connect Grafenaschau with the Murnau district of Westried and the state road 2062 and close a gap in the existing network: Unlike about 15 years ago, there are well-filled funding pots.

This factor plays a major role in the estimated costs of around 1.9 million euros for a construction route of almost 1.5 kilometers.

The own share in this Murnau-Schwaigen cooperation project is then probably between 265,000 and 350,000 euros for each municipality.

The Murnau committee unanimously votes for a variant of the route

The municipalities have already completed many steps, and now Murnau has submitted the next one.

On Tuesday evening, the building committee unanimously voted in favor of one of several route variants that planner Kurt Seeler (pbu Beratende Ingenieure GmbH Kempten) had presented - for the one that, in Seeler's eyes, "performed best by far".

New pedestrian and cycle path runs south-east of Aschauer Straße

The route starts at Lindenbach near Grafenaschau, over which a bridge with a span of twelve meters leads, and runs along the entire length south-east of Aschauer Straße to state road 2062. It then continues parallel to this for about 40 meters and then via a crossing aid onto the North side of 2062. There the new building connects to the existing path.

The two branches at the junction triangle to Westried are combined into one strand.

It is the cheapest connection that does not require any intervention in water and also receives the best assessment from a nature conservation point of view, said Seeler.

The path chosen is also the most tolerable from a nature conservation point of view

Because one thing is clear: the planned construction affects sensitive and valuable protected areas, the area is interspersed with a large number of biotopes.

Although the variant chosen requires terrain modelling, it was said that it was the most tolerable in terms of protecting valuable habitat types and species.

In addition to the Murnau municipal council, the Schwaigener committee, which attended the committee meeting with some representatives, still has to agree.

Signature campaign for the project years ago

The mayor of the village leaves no doubt that the Plazet will take place.

Hubert Mangold knows how immensely important his Grafenaschauer project is, for which there was a signature campaign years ago.

He underscores its necessity and emphasizes the "immense danger" the lack of a footpath and cycle path means: for schoolchildren, for example, and everyone else from his area who has to take the community connecting road to the train station or back, for day trippers, holidaymakers in the Blue Land or Westrieders shopping in the Grafenaschau village shop.

Murnau's town hall boss Rolf Beuting (ÖDP/Bürgerforum) also knows that "many people from Westried and Grafenaschau would like a safe footpath and cycle path" and emphasized the added safety.

Only a small part runs on Schwaigener Flur - but the place bears half the costs

Negotiations with landowners now follow, and an application for funding must be submitted.

In addition, the Murnau committee voted to conclude an agreement with the municipality of Schwaigen on the further planning steps.

The small community wants to shoulder the same financial burden for the joint project as the relatively large Murnau without complaint, even though only about ten percent of the planned footpath and cycle path runs on their land.

Mangold does not question the sharing of costs for this project, which "the citizens want": This is "fair" and "usual" for such projects.

But without a grant, it wouldn't work.