Autobahn 3 (Switzerland)

	Template: Infobox high-ranking road / Maintenance / CH-A
	Autobahn 3 in Switzerland
	map
	Basic data
Operator:	Federal Roads Office
Start of the street:	Basel ; ( 47 ° 35 ′ N , 7 ° 34 ′ E )
End of the road:	Sargans ; ( 47 ° 2 ′ N , 9 ° 28 ′ E )
Overall length:	approx. 180 km
Canton :	Basel city ; Basel-Country ; Aargau ; Zurich ; Schwyz ; Glarus ; St. Gallen ;

The Autobahn 3 from Basel to Sargans is part of the Swiss motorway network . It is largely congruent with the national road 3.

history

In the spring of 1967, the Richterswil - Zurich Wollishofen section was opened along the left bank of Lake Zurich . The construction time for this 23.7 km long section was five years, the costs 298 million francs . During the construction, the necessary gravel was brought from Langnau and Burghalden to the construction site on a conveyor belt . With this section, the first motorway police in the canton of Zurich went into operation in Horgen . The first overpass with surface heating against black ice was also built.

In 1986 the bottleneck on Walenseestrasse was expanded into a fully-fledged motorway.

The Bözberg tunnel went into operation in 1996, so that the A3 Basel-Zurich was continuously passable and a more direct connection was available compared to the route through the Belchen tunnel, which could also bypass Brugg at the same time .

In May 2009, the western bypass between the Limmattal junction and Zurich- South was opened. The main structure of this section is the Uetliberg tunnel .

Route

The A3 begins as a continuation of the French A 35 at the Basel / Saint-Louis motorway customs . After a short stretch of the northern bypass through Basel, it joins the A2 at the Basel Wiese junction .

Near Walenstadt, in the background the Churfirsten (view to the north)

Aare viaduct between Habsburg and Schinznach-Dorf

A2 / A3 in Basel

It separates from the A2 at the Augst junction near Basel . It leads east via Rheinfelden and the Fricktal . After the 3750 meter long Bözberg tunnel, it joins the A1 at the Birrfeld junction near Birmenstorf . From the Limmattal interchange , the A3 has been running since May 2009 via the so-called “Westum bypass”, through the Uetliberg tunnel to the Zurich-South junction and further along the left bank of Lake Zurich via Walensee to Sargans , where it joins the A13 .

The A3 (together with a section of the A1) is the most important connection between Basel and Zurich and (together with a section of the A13 ) the most important connection between Zurich and Chur .

Sections

Walensee

The motorway section on Lake Walen is a special feature. Between Weesen and Murg , the N3 was opened as a main road in mid-1964 and led through the six tunnels of the former railway line of the Sargans – Weesen section of the Ziegelbrücke – Sargans railway line, which was opened in 1859 . It was no longer used after the railway was moved to the Kerenzberg tunnel in 1960. The route included the Ofenegg (370 m) , Weisswand (460 m) , Standenhorn (230 m) , Glattwand (100 m) , Mühlehorn (260 m) and Stutz (144 m) tunnels . The Walenseestrasse became a two-lane intermediate section of the otherwise four-lane route between Weesen and Walenstadt . The section was only expanded to form a motorway in 1986 with the opening of the single-tube Kerenzerberg tunnel (5760 m), through which the directional lane to Murg / Sargans has been running ever since. The old six tunnels and the road on the banks of the Walensee were converted to one-way operation and have since formed the directional lane to Weesen / Zurich.

Zurich western bypass

Since May 4, 2009, with the opening of the section of the motorway between the Birmensdorf junction and the Zurich South junction - the last section of the so-called “western bypass” - the A3 has been continuous between Basel and Sargans.

When the new section was opened to traffic in 2009, two previous motorway sections were renumbered. The Limmattal – Hardturm motorway branch leading into the city of Zurich (officially since the beginning N1, registered as N1H as of 2020) has now been designated as A1H (Hardturm feeder) instead of A3. The Wiedikon –Zürich Süd motorway branch leading out of the city , the so-called Sihlhochstrasse , was newly designated as A3W (Wiedikon feeder, as of 2020 N3W).

With the opening of the western bypass, the first stage of the accompanying measures for the residential areas along the former “western bypass” in the city of Zurich also came into force. The previous streets, which were used for the inner-city transit connection of the motorway endpoints Wiedikon and Hardturm, were provisionally narrowed to one lane in each direction two days before the opening. In the following months, the previous “provisional” transit axes to district streets (Weststrasse and Sihlfeldstrasse) and main urban roads (Seebahnstrasse and Schimmelstrasse) were dismantled. In addition to various structural measures, additional traffic lights were installed on the access axes via Wollishofen and Albisrieden , which act as metering systems to regulate the flow of traffic into the city and to make the alternative traffic to the residential areas unattractive.

Individual evidence

↑ Damian Grunow: 50 years of the A3 - when motorways were still inspiring . In: Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) . ( srf.ch [accessed on September 21, 2017]).
^ City of Zurich, TED: Accompanying measures for the Zurich western bypass ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : A3 - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Western bypass (website of the Canton of Zurich)
Photo series A3 on Autobahnen.ch
Photo series A3W on Autobahnen.ch
Photo series A3 on Autobahn-Bilder.de
Expansion project Rheinfelden - Frick (repair) ( Memento from May 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Complete renovation of maintenance section A3 / 68 ( Memento from May 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

[1] Damian Grunow: 50 years of the A3 - when motorways were still inspiring . In: Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) . ( srf.ch [accessed on September 21, 2017]).

[ted_flamawest-2] City of Zurich, TED: Accompanying measures for the Zurich western bypass ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )


Motorways and roads	A1 • A2 • A3 • A4 • A5 • A6 • A7 • A8 • A9 • A10 • A12 • A13 • A14 • A15 • A16 • A17 • A18 • A20 • A21 • A22 • A23 • A24 • A25 • A50 • A51 • A52
Motorway junctions and feeder roads	A1a • A1H • A1L • A3W • A10 / K10
Main streets	1 • 2 • 2a • 2b • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 ( N28 ) • 29 • 30