2024-01-18 04:10:00
PrintShare
The Brenner is threatened with collapse next year: an important bridge will then only be accessible in one lane in each direction. Even a complete closure is possible. This means even more traffic jams for holidaymakers.
Innsbruck/Brenner – Holidaymakers, truck drivers and residents on the A8 and A93 must expect heavy traffic jams from next year, including on the further route to the Brenner. The Austrian motorway operator ASFINAG surprisingly announced on Tuesday that from then on an important bridge on the Brenner motorway will only be accessible in one lane in each direction for an indefinite period of time.
The Luegbrücke near Gries am Brenner is becoming a permanent bottleneck © IMAGO/Eibner-Pressefoto/EXPA/Groder
The 1,800 meter long Lueg Bridge near Gries am Brenner was built in 1968 and has been renovated several times since then. ASFINAG believes that building a new bridge is unavoidable; the old structure is no longer able to cope with today’s traffic. “The single lane on the Luegbrücke is a question of safety, there are no compromises here,” explains managing director Stefan Siegele in the press release, explaining why he is taking the measure.
According to the highway operator, the bridge can no longer handle the traffic
How is the ever-growing avalanche of traffic supposed to get through this bottleneck? “A dynamic design of lanes on the Luegbrücke should keep traffic moving on busy days and reduce massive traffic jams as much as possible,” continued Siegele. This means that during the travel waves there will be two lanes in the direction in which the highest traffic volume is expected.
Provisional steel supports were installed under the Lueg Bridge and new foundations were cast into the rock. © Asfinag/Porr
But that also means that there will be truck driving bans on these days – in addition to those that are already regularly imposed. And that means stop-and-go in Kufstein and also on the Brenner border, especially during the holiday season. Recently there were at times backlogs of up to 110 kilometers at the borders. “Another solution would hardly make sense, as there are no alternative routes for trucks in Tyrol,” explains ASFINAG spokesman Alexander Holzedl.
Even a total closure of the Brenner motorway is under discussion
But things might get even worse, according to Holzedl, even a total closure is possible: “Everything depends on the result of the bridge test, which will take place in the first half of 2024. “Independent experts will then present us with the results – the measures that will be necessary will then be derived from this,” he says IPPEN.MEDIA.
Bavaria’s Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU) is alarmed. Opposite IPPEN.MEDIA he says: “I expect ASFINAG and the state of Tyrol to organize traffic in such a way during the construction phase that it can continue to flow.” Logistics companies and the public also need planning security. “The complete closure of the route to trucks on individual days, as brought into play by ASFINAG, must be avoided at all costs during the week,” continued Berneiter. He hopes that the slot system for trucks, which is currently in Tyrol. South Triol and Bavaria are working, can start work on time.
Small village stopped building a new bridge – because it was choked with traffic
The mayor of the municipality of Gries, which lies on the Lueg Bridge, Karl Mühlsteiger, had complained once morest the much broader planned new building. Instead, he is calling for a tunnel to replace the dilapidated bridge in order to protect his citizens from noise and exhaust fumes.
However, ASFINAG and the government in Vienna rejected the tunnel. Mühlsteiger believes that ASFINAG’s announcement is aimed at him: “They want to put immense pressure on us,” said the local boss IPPEN.MEDIA. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we won’t change the path we’ve chosen. We are waiting for a trial date before the Federal Administrative Court.” The citizens and neighboring communities are behind him.
1705557864
#Austria #permanently #closing #side #Brenner #motorway #bridge
