Motorway 22 (Switzerland)

Autobahn 22 in Switzerland
map
Basic data
Operator:	Federal Roads Office
Overall length:	13.5 km
Canton :	Basel-Country
Course of the road Further on    (8th)  Liestal branch   Autobahn 22 Frenkendorf Schönthaltunnel (2000 m) Liestal Motorway end Road 22 Liestal End of the road Autobahn 22 Louse Itingen (11)  Sissach branch   Motorway end Sissach Motorway A22 Chienberg tunnel (2300 m) End of the road Further on

The Autobahn 22 and Autostrasse 22 are 13.5 kilometers long high-speed roads in the canton of Basel-Landschaft . It was opened on December 11, 2013, with parts of the road under a different designation (H2) already in operation earlier. The section from the Liestal junction to the Sissach junction belongs to the federal government and forms the national road 22 there. The Chienberg tunnel bypassing Sissach, on the other hand, is a cantonal road.

course

The A22 opens up the Ergolztal in the canton of Basel-Landschaft and runs - separated by a range of hills - parallel to Autobahn 2 . It begins at the A2 motorway exit Liestal / Augst, then heads south between Frenkendorf and Füllinsdorf (largely in a tunnel), on a bridge over and along the Ergolz through Liestal as a bypass and further - next to the Ergolz - to Sissach Nord , where there is again connection to the A2. Finally, again in a tunnel, it bypasses the community of Sissach, at the southern end of which - in the direction of Böckten - the A22 ends after 13.5 kilometers.

Building history

prehistory

The A22 was not planned as a continuous high-speed road from the start - neither as the A22 nor under any other name. When Autobahn 2 was planned and finally built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were two options for the route between Augst and Sissach: the motorway route through the Ergolztal or - as was finally realized - through a side valley to Arisdorf and a tunnel to Sissach. The route through the Ergolztal would have been shorter, but would have led through a fairly densely populated area. In and around Liestal in particular, there was no open space on which a four-lane motorway could have run through Liestal. There were also considerable noise protection concerns. Thus, the A2 was not built in the Ergolztal, which, however, meant that this densely populated valley had no motorway access.

Cantonal motorway T2 / J2 Liestal - Sissach and Liestal bypass

In order to open up the Ergolztal via high-speed road, the planning and construction of a cantonal high-speed road from Sissach to Liestal was started at the same time as the construction and planning of the A2 (via Arisdorf). The Sissach - Itingen section could already be built at the end of the 1960s . In 1970 the Liestal bypass was realized. Since there was no continuous open space in Liestal to cross the city, the road was built on a continuous bridge over the Ergolz river, which crosses Liestal . For reasons of space, however, only as a two-lane, non-directional car road and not - as otherwise - as a four-lane, directional motorway. In the mid-1970s, the high-speed road between Liestal Nord and Sissach (motorway connection) was put into operation.

At that time the street was named T2 (for Talstrasse 2), later J2 (for Jurastrasse 2), with the number 2 leaning on the parallel main street 2 Basel - Gotthard - Ticino and the Autobahn 2 (at that time still N2 for Nationalstrasse 2) .

Sissach bypass

All of the steadily increasing traffic in the valleys of the Upper Basel area has always had to go through the center of Sissach. For this reason, a bypass around Sissach was planned and created. A tunnel solution was chosen, the Chienberg tunnel . This was opened in 2006. The bypass road joins this shortly after the end of T2 / J2 in Sissach Süd / Autobahn connection A2 and bypasses Sissach.

Cantonal motorway H2 Augst - Liestal

Considered since the 1960s, the realization of a high-speed road from Liestal to Augst - and thus the connection of Liestal to the national motorway network, especially towards Basel - took over 40 years. The reasons for the delays were of a planning, technical, political and financial nature. The road led through a densely populated area. An area has been kept free for the street since the 1960s, so that an open construction method would have been possible, but this would have had a significant impact on the landscape and in particular would not have met the constantly increasing noise protection requirements. So a solution had to be found with an opencast tunnel. However, this solution turned out to be very costly, so that the building was discussed intensely politically and two referendums - 1995 and 2006 - were required for the building to be possible. There was also a three-lane main road on this section with main road 2, which bypassed the town centers, so that there was an alternative, even if traffic jams often formed on the main road, which was very heavily loaded with 40,000 vehicles every day. From 2006 the last section was finally built and opened on December 11, 2013.

The street was named H2 (for high-performance street 2 or main street 2) resp. HPL (main street Pratteln Liestal) built. The designation H2 gradually replaced the earlier designations T2 and J2 on the entire Sissach - Liestal - Augst route.

Renamed to A 22

With the opening of the last section between Liestal Nord and Augst on December 11, 2013, the individual road sections were uniformly combined under the new term Autobahn 22.

Planned structures

A fundamental renovation of the existing Liestal bypass or possibly a long-term replacement of a tunnel through the Schleifenberg is under discussion; the respective implementation depends on the financing.

Sections and finishing standard

In accordance with the long construction period of over 40 years, the motorway is divided into various individual sections, with the standard of construction being very different.

Augst - Liestal North (km 0 - km 4.5)

The youngest section of the A22 begins at the Augst / Liestal exit of Autobahn 2. Starting from the roundabout there, the Autobahn heads south along the Ergolz. For the first approx. 500 meters, the route is four-lane and has separate directions, but is classified as a main road. Then the motorway begins, although this is only single-lane in each direction - but in separate directions. First it crosses under the existing main road Liestal - Pratteln, from and to which connections to the A22 are possible in all directions (connection Pratteln Ost). After just under another kilometer - immediately after the half-junction between Frenkendorf / Füllinsdorf Nord (access to the A22 only in the direction of Liestal, exit from the A22 only in the direction of Augst) - the approx. 2-kilometer-long Schönthal opencast tunnel begins, which consists of two single-lane tubes , whereby in both tubes next to the main carriageway partly over 500 meters long entrance resp. There are tracks from and to the various connections. Approximately in the middle of the tunnel is the half-junction Frenkendorf / Füllinsdorf Süd (access to the A22 only in the direction of Augst, exit from the A22 only in the direction of Liestal). At around km 4.5, the Schönthal tunnel ends at the full Liestal Nord connection (connections in all directions) and the motorway 22 merges into the former bypass J2 Liestal.

Liestal Nord - Liestal Süd (Liestal bypass, km 4.5 - km 6.8)

The second part of the A22, the former Liestal bypass, begins immediately at the full connection to Liestal Nord. This structure, which dates from the early 1970s, was not structurally changed in the course of its integration into the A22, so that it is still a two-lane high-performance road that is not directionally separated. Accordingly, the route is classified as a car road and not as a motorway. At the end of the Liestal bypass there is the full connection Liestal Süd resp. formerly Liestal-Altmarkt.

Liestal Süd - Sissach (km 6.8 - km 11)

From the full connection to Liestal Süd, the A22 again presents itself as a fully developed motorway (four-lane, separate direction). There are full connections in Lausen and Itingen. In Sissach Süd - at the connection of the A22 to the Autobahn 22 and the local road network of Sissach - the four-lane expansion and the classification as a motorway will end. One lane leads - as a main road - to Autobahn 2, another - also as a main road - connects the A22 with the local road network and the Chienberg tunnel by means of a roundabout.

Sissach bypass (km 11 - km 13.5)

After the aforementioned roundabout, the last section of the A22, the Chienberg tunnel, begins. It is a single-tube, two-lane, non-directional tunnel. Accordingly, the section is classified as a car road. The A22 ends in Sissach Süd, near the municipal boundaries of Böckten and Thürnen , in another roundabout.

Top speed

The maximum speed indicated is usually 80 km / h, with the following exceptions: 60 km / h are indicated in the area of ​​the full connection to Pratteln Ost and in the area of ​​the Sissach North / Autobahn connection, 100 km / h are indicated on the Lausen - Sissach section .

business

Until 2020, Autobahn 22 was completely a cantonal motorway. Accordingly, the canton of Basel-Landschaft operated the route. Since it was a cantonal motorway, it was possible to use it without a motorway vignette. With the exception of the Sissach bypass, the motorway has been a national road (N22) since 2020, and a vignette has been required on this section since then.

Web links

• A22 ( memento from April 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) at the canton of Basel-Landschaft
• The new Baselbieter Autobahn is open . bazonline.ch , December 11, 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on the website of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft
2. ↑ A22: And suddenly the Basel area has a new motorway . bz Basel , December 5, 2013
3. ↑ http://www.baselland.ch/h2_pratteln-htm.288888.0.html
4. ^ Federal Roads Office FEDRO: National road route N22 - Canton Basel-Landschaft - previously A22. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .