As of: February 19, 2024, 5:25 a.m
By: Katharina Brumbauer
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Everything is closed: On Saturday afternoon, traffic on the B2 near Mittenwald and in the town came to such a standstill that access to the market town had to be closed.
Drivers who want to avoid Klais via Schmalensee-Straße will be sent back onto the federal highway.
Photo: hans schmid/mittenwald fire department © hans schmid/mittenwald fire department
Enormous traffic pushed through the district again on Saturday.
Mittenwald was once again severely affected.
Mittenwald – The vehicles were parked from the Krüner district of Gerold.
From there the column stretched 15 kilometers to the Austrian border near Scharnitz.
During peak times, traffic was disrupted from the end of Autobahn 95 near Eschenlohe.
Like a week before, a huge avalanche of metal rolled through the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district on Saturday.
And not - at the end of the carnival holidays in Bavaria - mainly as return traffic to the north.
But especially strongly towards the south.
Particularly affected: once again Mittenwald.
The traffic jam - the cars then tried to avoid the through town - was so big that the Mittenwald fire department had to close the entrances to the market town to through traffic for three hours at lunchtime in the afternoon.
There were disruptions on Saturday from the end of the motorway: traffic chaos in the district towards the south
A surprising number of cars with Dutch license plates have apparently made their way through the district.
There was block handling at the Farchant and Oberau tunnels.
The Ettaler Berg was also overloaded.
Behind the border to Grainau, at the Fernpass near Reutte, everything was also closed.
In Mittenwald, drivers tried to avoid the traffic jam that had arisen in the city in the afternoon.
This meant that side streets were also blocked.
Spring break began this Sunday in many regions of the Netherlands.
The Garmisch-Partenkirchen police explain that this could also have contributed to the fact that the cars were sometimes pushing bumper to bumper through the region.
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Sheet metal avalanches on Mittenwald's main and side streets: through traffic but not as extreme as the previous week
“It wasn't quite as extreme through traffic as last Saturday,” explains Mittenwald's mayor Enrico Corongiu (SPD).
He walked through the town for the first time around 10 a.m. when everything was still quiet.
By half past eleven there was already more traffic.
“And then everything happened very quickly.” Between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., in consultation with the police and fire brigade, work began to close the entrance to the town and the access to the commercial area and the barracks.
Drivers who had switched from Klais onto the state road past Schmalensee were asked to return to federal road 2.
Corongiu took the measures he was allowed to take.
For others, such as blocking the exit onto Schmalensee-Straße near Klais, approval from the district office would have been required.
Mittenwald's mayor couldn't reach anyone on Saturday.
“I can’t arbitrarily close streets,” emphasizes the town hall boss.
“But I am allowed to close the access to the town if I consider public safety to be at risk, and that was the case in the afternoon.”
Mayor Coronigiu: Traffic problems should be expected again during the Easter holidays
The residents groaned again under the avalanches of metal.
Corongiu received numerous calls on Saturday, including at his home.
“It puts a strain on citizens when traffic rolls past their house all day long.” The closure of the railway line, which lasted for over a year and a half, had already cost the people of Mittenwald nerves.
“Now we have the next problem with car traffic.” The bypass road, the B2, which had so much hope of relieving traffic when it opened, reaches its limits on busy weekends.
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“For the Easter holidays, which coincide in many federal states, we have to expect that we will be faced with a situation like this again.” For Corongiu, things cannot continue like this.
“We are a tourist town.” Sheet metal avalanches rolling through the town do not present an attractive picture.
Traffic problems in Mittenwald: Corongiu hopes for talks as quickly as possible
The town hall boss is also pushing for short-term solutions.
There should be a large round of discussions with the police, district administration and road construction authority “as quickly as possible”.
“I can’t put the fire department at the town entrance every weekend and have them work overtime.”
At around 5 p.m., traffic on the B2 had started flowing again and the closures were lifted.
Shortly afterwards there was a traffic jam again and once again cars swerved over Mittenwald.
The vehicles were on Partenkirchner Strasse, Tiefkarstrasse and two secondary routes.
But Corongiu emphasizes: “It wasn’t as violent as it was in the afternoon.”
You can find even more current news from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district at Merkur.de/Garmisch-Partenkirchen.