The inclined elevator to Domberg has reached the next station. Now the building committee said yes to the project – but with the dissenting votes of the parliamentary group of the Greens and the Left. © Graphic: Brückner & Brückner Architekten/3DWAY
It costs 5.8 million euros, provides barrier-free access to Cathedral Hill and is scheduled to go into operation in 2024: the inclined elevator to Mons doctus. It has now been voted on.
Freising – The next step towards barrier-free access to Domberg has been taken: The majority of the building and planning committee said yes to the inclined elevator on Tuesday. According to city director Gerhard Koch, the comments of the public interest bodies on the project, which had attracted real storms of enthusiasm in the design advisory board in January, were received at short notice. In order not to lose any time, the topic was immediately put on the agenda – certainly much to the delight of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which is shouldering the 5.8 million euro project.
It is true that the elevator from Bahnhofstraße, on the corner of Brunnhofgasse, passes under the backdrop of trees. Nevertheless, five trees protected by the Urban Green Ordinance stood in the way of the future railway. These five trees on the southern flank of the mountain, which are no longer quite fit anyway, have already been felled, and replacement plantings are being made on the south terrace of the museum and south of the residence. The archaeological excavations required for the final permit are already underway, and there is nothing to be said against it from the point of view of water law.
Synergy effect
What is essential, according to Koch, is an emergency staircase parallel to the rail. The entire project is perceived as a good opportunity to bring local heating to Domberg under this staircase: "The pipes are well hidden there – a good synergy effect," as Koch said. Both the valley building and the arrival building are not "purely technical", but will fit into the historical stock in a visually appealing way.
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Since the elevator is supposed to be in operation by the time of the state exhibition for the Corbinian Year 2024, it's pressing. And so the plans also had to be merged with the downtown redevelopment on Bahnhofstraße, as city architect Barbara Schelle explained. "We organized and coordinated our planning." Minor height adjustments were required here. Now the road surface is included in the valley structure, so that in the end everything is visually as if it were made of one piece.
Critical voices
"In view of the budget situation, we cannot close our eyes to the financial consequences of the project – and we cannot agree to this," announced Manfred Drobny (Greens). Mayor Tobias Eschenbacher criticised the fact that the members of the building and planning committee only had to make a building law assessment. "The right time for your criticism would be a finance committee meeting." Since this is not so easy to separate, as Drobny said – the city would have to pay 120,000 euros annually as the operator of the elevator – in the end, despite Eschenbacher's hint, the parliamentary group of the Greens and Nicolas Graßy (Left) were against it. Peter Warlimont (SPD), who is "still not enthusiastic about the elevator in terms of content", agreed from a purely building law point of view.
Good to know
The elevator with its glazed panoramic cabin can accommodate 14 people. The maximum capacity of the system is around 220 people per direction and hour. An ascent and descent takes a total of two and a half minutes. Operating hours are limited to Monday to Sunday between 6 a.m. and 23 p.m., and the elevator runs until 1 a.m. for special events.
You can find even more up-to-date news from the district of Freising on Merkur.de/Freising.