Motorway 15 (Switzerland)

Autobahn 15 in Switzerland
map
Basic data
Operator:	Cantons of Zurich , St. Gallen , ASTRA (in the Schwyz area )
Start of the street:	Wangen-Brüttisellen ( 47 ° 25 ′  N , 8 ° 38 ′  E )
End of the road:	Reichenburg ( 47 ° 11 ′  N , 8 ° 59 ′  E )
Overall length:	27 km
Canton :	Zurich  St. Gallen  Schwyz
Course of the road Autobahn 15 (1)  Brüttisellen (1)  Brüttisellen     (2)  Cheeks (3)  Hegnau (4)  Volketswil (5)  Uster West (6)  Uster north tunnel (7)  Uster East Motorway end Aathal Wetzikon West tunnel tunnel Junction Ottikon Autobahn 15 (9)  Hinwil junction (10)  Dürnten (11)  Rüti ZH Crossing into Autostrasse (12)  Rapperswil Aspwald tunnel (380 m) Jonerwald tunnel (410 m) (13)  Jonah Alder tunnel Balmenrain tunnel Transition to the Autobahn (14)  Eschenbach Uznabergtunnel (937 m) (15)  Schmerikon Buchberg tunnel (458 m) (16)  Tuggen (17)  Reichenburg branch Under construction In planning  Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap map

The Swiss Autobahn 15 , also called Oberlandautobahn , or Autostrasse 15 is part of the Nationalstrasse 15. It crosses the cantons of Zurich , St. Gallen and Schwyz . Until the end of 2019 it was called A53.

The A15 leads from the Brüttisellen (ZH) junction to the Reichenburg (SG) junction . The A15 is classified as a 2nd class national road. There is a gap between Uster and Hinwil .

course

The road begins at the Brüttisellen (ZH) junction and then runs as a four-lane, direction-separated motorway to the provisional end of the motorway in Uster . The section between Uster and Hinwil is being planned. The A15 then leads a short distance from the Überlandstrasse / Winterthurerstrasse junction in Hinwil as a non-directional car road to the Hinwil junction (Betzholz roundabout) and then as a directionally separate motorway to the Rüti junction . As a result, the highway bypasses 15 as a non-directional separation, two-lane highway with emergency lane the places Rapperswil-Jona and then leads to the port Eschenbach . From there the Autobahn 15 runs as a four-lane road with directional separation through the Uznabergtunnel and to Schmerikon through the Buchberg tunnel , before the Linth plain is crossed. The Autobahn 15 ends at the Reichenburg junction .

As an important traffic axis, Autobahn 15 connects Autobahn 1 ( Geneva - Lake Constance ) east of Zurich with Autobahn 3 ( Basel - Zurich - Sargans ) and serves to develop the Zurich Oberland .

history

Planning history in the canton of Zurich

The Oberland Autobahn was first planned in 1965. As a counter-reaction to this, the population of the canton of Zurich accepted the initiative democracy in road construction on March 13, 1977 . In 1987, the majority of the Swiss population approved the Rothenthurm Initiative . As a result, the few remaining moors in Switzerland were protected at federal and constitutional level. In 1992 the variant in the middle of the missing A15 section between Oberuster and Betzholz-Kreisel Hinwil was determined by the state planning group Zürcher Oberland without a referendum.

In March 2008, the Zurich government council announced that it had dealt with 177 objections to the project and thus determined the section of the motorway. The building department has set itself the goal of advancing the Oberlandautobahn project so far that it can be handed over to the federal government ready for construction. With the redesign of the financial equalization scheme (NFA), the competence for the construction of the national highways lies with the federal government.

Gap closure

In June 2012, the Federal Supreme Court approved three complaints against closing the gap. The project, approved by the cantonal administrative court in Zurich, violates moor protection. The affected area is a nature reserve of national importance. The highest Swiss court is thus turning against the plan to release individual parcels from the perimeter of the moorland so that the motorway can be built there. The new planning can also take place at the federal level with the consultation of the Federal Nature and Heritage Protection Commission, since the A15 was reclassified as a national road as part of the network decision.

On May 29, 2017, the Cantonal Council set the new route of the Oberlandautobahn over Ottikon in the structure plan. This alignment no longer violates the moor protection. The project envisages that the Oberlandautobahn after the Betzholz-Kreisel, which will be largely canceled, will be led over the Forchautobahn A52 . At today's Ottikon exit, the new motorway branches off to the north and is mostly led through tunnels towards Aatal , where it will join the existing motorway at Uster.

In 2019, the National Council and the Council of States did not plan to close the gaps in the Oberland motorway for the next step in the expansion of the national road network. The project is not yet fully developed. The expected costs are also not yet known. If the planning work progresses quickly, it can be assumed that the implementation will be planned for the next expansion step in 2023. Until the opening, the corresponding section of Hauptstrasse 340 is also part of the national road network.

Change of ownership 2020

In the areas of the cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen, the motorway was operated cantonally until 2020, while the approximately 1,600-meter-long section in the canton of Schwyz (exit Tuggen ) has always been a national road , the name there was N15. In the cantonal road network of the canton of St. Gallen, the road was listed as Kantonsstrasse 86 .

With the vote of the Swiss electorate on February 12, 2017 (acceptance of the submission for the National Road and Agglomeration Fund), the federal resolution on the national road network was amended on January 1, 2020. The Oberland Autobahn between Brüttisellen and the Reichenburg junction thus became an integral part of the national road network operated by the federal government. Those sections marked as autobahns and motorways now also require a vignette .

gallery

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  Exit No. 3 of the A15 to Hegnau

• 

  The road bridge over the Jona at the Aspwald tunnel in Jona (SG)

Web links

Commons : A53 (Switzerland)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official cantonal side of the Oberlandautobahn
• Photo series A15 on Autobahnen.ch
• Association "Merger Oberlandstrasse"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Layer national road axes on map.geo.admin.ch (Permalink)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Federal Decree on the National Road Network
3. ↑ Max R. Homberger: "Perpetrator" and "victim" in a building project. In: The Zurich Oberland. Wetzikon, June 27, 2012, p. 22.
4. ↑ Information on closing the gap
5. ↑ Stefan Hotz: Federal court stops motorway project In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of June 21, 2012
6. ↑ Stefan Hotz: There has been an argument about the Oberlandautobahn for decades, now its course has been determined In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 29, 2017
7. ↑ Stefan Hotz: 30 years of bad planning In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of March 24, 2017
8. ^ Canton of Zurich: fact sheet
9. ↑ "That means nothing negative for the Oberlandautobahn" In: zueriost.ch from June 19, 2019
10. ↑ New roads requiring a vignette in 2020 - ASTRA