As of: March 15, 2024, 9:22 a.m
By: Dirk Walter
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It's almost a first: For the first time in decades, a section of the Salzburg A8 motorway between Rosenheim and the state border is to be expanded to three lanes in both directions.
The Federal Nature Conservation Union is examining a lawsuit.
Munich/Rosenheim –
It is a chronically overloaded holiday route: the Salzburg motorway becomes a bottleneck from the Inntaldreieck towards the south.
With a few exceptions, such as on Bernauer Berg up to the Austrian border, it is only two lanes and has no shoulders.
Traffic jam on the A8 near Aschau.
© Matthias Balk
The government has granted the right to build the 7.8 kilometer section
There have been discussions about the expansion for years, but now the federal Autobahn GmbH has overcome a first crucial hurdle: Last week, the government of Upper Bavaria approved the planning approval and thus building rights for the 7.8 kilometer long section between the Achenmühle junction and Bernauer Berg granted.
Unless there are complaints, the motorway can now be expanded to three lanes and with a hard shoulder.
Several hundred objections from private individuals had previously been processed.
The main point of criticism was the noise protection for the community of Frasdorf, which is located south of the A8.
The houses on the northern edge are very close to the highway, and from some places “you can almost see into the living room,” says Autobahn GmbH spokesman Josef Seebacher.
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590 meter long tunnel seals off Frasdorf
Now the motorway is to be sealed off by a 590 meter long tunnel.
More precisely, it is an enclosure that is to be “covered and planted,” as the planning documents state.
The Rosenheim CSU member of the Bundestag Daniela Ludwig speaks of a huge success for the place, which was only made possible through the so-called planning dialogue between communities, residents and citizens' initiatives.
“Without this planning dialogue, we wouldn’t have the tunnel.”
If things go well for the highway builders, the clearing work necessary for the widening will be carried out at the beginning of next year.
After that the groundbreaking could take place.
That's not certain.
Because the Federal Nature Conservation Association is examining a lawsuit, as deputy state chairwoman Beate Rutkowski tells our newspaper.
“Our attitude has not changed.” Only the expansion of hard shoulders is acceptable.
However, additional lanes would be counterproductive to a traffic turnaround.
The expansion contradicts the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, which gave climate protection constitutional status in 2021.
EU guidelines on water and biotope protection could also apply, says Rutkowski.
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270 million euros minimum costs
If construction takes place, it will take a long time: around eight years, Seebacher estimates.
On the one hand, this is due to the complex construction method under the flowing traffic: the motorway will first be widened towards the north, then all the traffic will be placed on it in order to be able to tackle the south side.
Secondly, there are also a number of nature conservation requirements - the excavators are not allowed to run around the clock, closure times for noise protection and bird breeding times must be observed.
“You don’t make it easy for yourself when you concrete something like that into the landscape,” says the highway spokesman.
According to conservative estimates, the expansion will cost 270 million euros.
The “vision” envisaged in the federal transport infrastructure plan is the three-lane expansion of the entire A8 between Rosenheim and the state border.
However, there are different urgencies.
The current section is defined as “urgent need with bottleneck elimination”, the sections further east from Chiemsee are only in the so-called “further need”, which de facto means a postponement indefinitely.
Autobahn GmbH focuses here on emergency renovations.
Current example: There has been a construction site on Teisenberg since yesterday.
The roadway needs to be rehabilitated; the A8 is now narrowed to one lane at this point.
“It’s absolutely clear that there will be traffic jams,” says Seebacher.
But there is no other way.
“We have to finish before Easter” – because that’s when Easter holiday travelers want to travel comfortably to their holiday destinations by car.
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