2023-09-19 17:07:00
The bypass tunnel in St. Wolfgang has existed since 1993 and was built at the time due to the ever-increasing traffic congestion caused by the flow of tourists. At a ceremony with former state governor Josef Pühringer, the then state councilor looked back: “It was my first major project as the state government’s construction officer.”
There had previously been heated debates regarding the project. “Back then, we suggested a bypass tunnel instead of a half-hearted solution,” remember the master blacksmith Franz Ramsauer and the master roofer Wolfgang Linsmayer regarding the time 45 years ago. Unfortunately, politicians did not dare to come up with a permanent solution, and in 1975 only two old houses in the town center were razed at great financial expense so that traffic might at least flow through the old market in two lanes.
However, a short time later, both locals and guests realized that only a tunnel solution might prevent St. Wolfgang’s traffic collapse. The “Linsmayer Group” became active once more, looked for new alliances, had a project model built at its own expense and, with the support of the then mayor Josef Windhager, achieved a change of opinion among the population.
Not even 15 years following the failed attempt to solve the problem at the end of the 1970s, the groundbreaking ceremony for the bypass tunnel took place in 1991. The tunnel was opened in 1993 following two years of construction.
According to Mayor Franz Eisl and Economic Association Chairman Arno Perfaller (both ÖVP), it was particularly important that sufficient parking spaces were created at the tunnel portals when the tunnel opened. St. Wolfgang currently has 300 parking spaces in parking garages, plus around 400 parking spaces at the entrance to the town.
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