Federal motorway 71

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / Maintenance / DE-A
	Bundesautobahn 71 in Germany
	map
	Basic data
Operator:	Federal Republic of Germany
Start of the street:	Sangerhausen
End of street:	Bergrheinfeld
Overall length:	220 km
State :	Saxony-Anhalt; Thuringia; Bavaria;
Development condition:	four-lane
	Haseltal valley bridge
	State of Saxony-Anhalt
	Free State of Thuringia
	Free State of Bavaria
	Under construction; In planning; Traffic control system ;

The federal motorway 71 (abbreviation: BAB 71 ) - short form: Autobahn 71 (abbreviation: A 71 ) - has a length of 220 km. It connects Sangerhausen via Erfurt and the Thuringian Forest with Schweinfurt . The first section from Erfurt – Bindersleben to the provisional connection to Traßdorf was opened to traffic in 1998, the last section between Etzleben and Sömmerda-Ost on September 3, 2015.

The A 71 crosses the Thuringian Forest at its narrowest point for around 60 km between the Arnstadt-Süd and Meiningen-Nord junctions and is also called the Thuringian Forest Autobahn here. The actual ridge crossing takes place at 670 m above sea level with a maximum longitudinal incline of two percent in the almost eight kilometer long Rennsteig tunnel, the longest motorway tunnel in Germany.

Other places on the A 71 are Artern , Heldrungen , Arnstadt , Ilmenau , Geraberg , Oberhof , Zella-Mehlis , Suhl , Meiningen , Mellrichstadt , Bad Neustadt , Münnerstadt and Bad Kissingen .

history

Route of the A 71
Sangerhausen – Schweinfurt

The federal motorway is a new construction that began in 1996 with the main Erfurt – Schweinfurt section as part of the German Unity No. 16 traffic project. At around ten million euros per kilometer, the route is the most expensive motorway that was built in Germany (at the time of completion).

The first section of the A 71 from Erfurt – Bindersleben to the provisional connection to Traßdorf was opened to traffic in 1998. The section between the Oberhof and Suhl / Zella-Mehlis junctions was released on November 5, 2001, followed by the section from Traßdorf to Ilmenau-Ost on November 21, 2001. On December 20, 2002 the section Suhl / Zella-Mehlis to Meiningen-Nord and the section Ilmenau-Ost to Ilmenau-West was released. With the approval of the sections from Ilmenau-West to Gräfenroda, as well as the first lane from Meiningen-Nord to Meiningen-Süd on July 5, 2003 and the approval of the section from Graefenroda to Oberhof two days later, the entire route from Erfurt to Meiningen- South in operation. The second lane between Meiningen-Nord and Meiningen-Süd was opened to traffic on November 12, 2004. On October 14, 2005, the section between the Werntal motorway triangle near Schweinfurt , where the A 71 joins the A 70 , and the Bad Kissingen / Oerlenbach junction was opened to traffic. The Meiningen-Süd - Bad Kissingen / Oerlenbach section followed on December 17, 2005, completing the 152 km long section between Erfurt and Schweinfurt, which cost 1.6 billion euros.

The clearance of the remaining 68 km long route between Erfurt-Bindersleben and Sangerhausen began on December 16, 2002 with the section between Sömmerda-Süd and Erfurt-Nord, six months later on July 10, 2003, the section between Sömmerda-Ost and Sömmerda followed -South. On December 6, 2005, the section from Erfurt-Nord to Erfurt-Stotternheim followed and on December 15, 2006, the gap between Erfurt-Stotternheim and Erfurt-Bindersleben was closed. On December 12, 2008, the section between Heldrungen and a provisional junction on the B 85 south of Etzleben , including the 1725 m long Schmücketunnel, was released after three years of construction. The penultimate section between the Heldrungen junction and the Südharz motorway triangle near Sangerhausen was opened to traffic on April 29, 2013 after the original date had to be postponed in December 2012 due to a complaint against the award of the guardrail installation.

For the remainder of the route from AS Sömmerda-Ost to the provisional connection to Bundesstraße 85 , building permits had existed since November 2009. With the official start of construction on this section on June 23, 2010, a dynamic intensive compaction of the soil was carried out (the section leads through a sinkhole area with numerous underground cavities) before the construction of the route and traffic area began in March 2013. The work on the Leubinger Fürstenhügel tank and rest area was in preparation for the tender by DEGES in October 2012. The opening of this last section of the A 71 followed on September 3, 2015. At the beginning of 2017, DEGES expected that the parking spaces there would be released in spring 2017 and that the rest area buildings would be completed in 2019 for the international building exhibition in Thuringia. The 129 car and 88 truck parking spaces were opened on May 24, 2017. In September 2017, the concession for the rest stop was awarded to Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH, which it would like to open in 2019 as planned. In October 2019 this was postponed to spring 2020. ^[outdated]

On December 20, 2017, the Stadtilm junction with connection to the new federal highway 90 towards Rudolstadt was opened.

Restructuring in the existing road network

After the construction of the A 71, some parallel federal roads were closed or downgraded:

The B 4 was graduated between the A 71-AS Erfurt-Gispersleben and Coburg to form a state road or a district road.
The B 7 was graduated to a district road between the A 71-AS Erfurt-Bindersleben and Erfurt-Linderbach . At the same time, the four-lane L 1052 (Erfurt east bypass) built as part of the A 71 was rededicated from the Linderbach junction to the A71-AS Erfurt-Nord to the federal highway.
The B 19 was downgraded between Meiningen and Münnerstadt and between Euerbach and the A 70-AS Werneck to state road 3019 (in Thuringia) and state road 2445 (in Bavaria).
The B 86 was downgraded in 2013 between AS Heldrungen and Sachsenburg to Landesstraße 3086, in Heldrungen to district and municipal road. The section from AS Heldrungen to A 38 AS Sangerhausen-Süd followed in January 2016. Bundesstrasse 85 and Bundesstrasse 176 are also to be reorganized after the A 71 has been fully opened.
The B 87 was downgraded in 2013 between the AS Ilmenau-Ost and the town of Ilmenau to Landstrasse 3087.
The B 88 was downgraded to a municipal road between the AS Ilmenau-West and the AS Gräfenroda and a state road between the AS Ilmenau-Ost and the AS Ilmenau-West.
The B 247 was downgraded to the L 3247 between Ohrdruf and Schleusingen .
The B 280 from Zella-Mehlis to Meiningen was rededicated as the B 62 between Zella-Mehlis and Benshausen , and the further course was graded to Landesstraße 1131 and Kreisstraße 581.

The B 19 was partially rebuilt and relocated in the Meiningen area. It now runs from Meiningen via Helba to AS Meiningen-Nord. From AS Münnerstadt to the confluence of the B 287 , the B 19 will be replaced by the B 287.

On the other hand, several large road projects for the hinterland connection of the A 71 are planned, under construction or implemented:

In Artern , a bypass was created (L 1172) to better connect the areas to the east around Roßleben to the autobahn; the state of Thuringia is aiming for further construction west of the autobahn.

Heldrungen also received a bypass (L 3086), which improves the connection to Bad Frankenhausen .

The L 1051 from AS Kölleda to the Streitsee intersection has been fundamentally expanded, including a bypass for Dermsdorf (approval: 2012), which can better accommodate traffic to and from the motorway, especially to the nearby industrial park.

A bypass ( B 176 ) was also built in Sömmerda , which improves traffic from the A 71 in a westerly direction. The road network to Weißensee and Straussfurt (with a new bypass of the B 4) is to be reorganized in further construction phases .

In Erfurt , an east bypass was built from the A 71 to the L 1052 in the Erfurt-Südost district. This is in the section from the A 71 to Erfurt- Linderbach (connection to the B 7 in the direction of Weimar ) part of the Erfurter Ring . This section became part of federal highway 7 in 2013 . The southern section is dedicated as L 1052.

Between Straussfurt and Bad Langensalza , the federal highway 176 was relocated to a southerly route from Andisleben in order to improve the connection between north-west Thuringia and the new motorway and the state capital.

At Traßdorf , the Stadtilm junction was connected to the federal road 90 , which is a 14-kilometer new line that improves the connection to the Saalfeld / Rudolstadt area .

In Ilmenau , the federal road 88 was given a new route with a bypass for the city and Langewiesen , which improves the connection between the Thuringian slate mountains and the motorway.

Geschwenda received a bypass (B 88), which improves the connection between the Ohrdruf area and the A 71.

Between Zella-Mehlis and Benshausen , the previous state road was upgraded to federal road 62 . Further on to federal highway 19 near Wernshausen , the state road was or is to be upgraded in order to better develop the Schmalkalden area in an east and west direction.

The B 19 is being expanded between Meiningen and the Bad Salzungen area and will be bypassed.

The federal highway 87n is to be built between Meiningen and Fulda in order to improve the connection to the Rhön and to close the gap between the A 71 near Meiningen and the A 66 near Fulda in the federal trunk road network. Due to its high costs and ecological risks, this route is controversial and the start of construction is not in sight.

Mellrichstadt was given a bypass ( Bundesstraße 285 ) to better connect the towns of the Streutal to the A 71.

North extension to the federal motorway 14

An extension to the A 14 at the Plötzkau junction as a connection between Erfurt and Magdeburg was considered at the beginning of the overall planning to the A 71, but was ultimately not included in the binding planning. For regional planning securing the alignment corridor this extension was in the 2003 National Development Plan included Saxony-Anhalt. In its coalition agreement of April 2011, the re-elected black and red state government of Saxony-Anhalt decided to register the northern extension of the A 71 from Sangerhausen to the A 14 for the next federal traffic route plan. In 2010, the existing federal highway 86 in the corridor between Sangerhausen and Hettstedt only had a moderate traffic load of around 8,000 vehicles per day, as did federal highway 180 between Eisleben and Aschersleben . Both federal highways have already been re-routed at least in their southern sections between the A 38 and the Hettstedt area and provided with bypasses. However, there is still no efficient road connection between Hettstedt and the A 14; so far only the state roads 72, 74 and 152 are available here. Due to the sharp decline in population in the Mansfeld region , the volume of traffic has tended to decline. The extended A 71 would shorten the route between Erfurt and Magdeburg by around 30 kilometers (or 20 minutes) (compared to the route via the - not yet completed - federal motorway 143 ). In the spring of 2013, the state of Saxony-Anhalt registered the northern extension to federal motorway 14 for the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 . The audit found that the cost-benefit ratio was too low and the extension was not included in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030.

State of development

Apart from a short section of incline between the Behringen tunnel and Ilmenau-Ost, the motorway has four lanes throughout (including hard shoulder, outside the tunnel). Instead of a hard shoulder, a continuous interwoven strip was built between the Erfurt-Mittelhausen and Erfurt-Gispersleben junctions.

Most of the route has a standard cross-section (RQ) of 26 m wide. On the northern section between Sangerhausen and Sömmerda, the highway was built with a width of 29.5 m (RQ 29.5).

speed limit

Between the Alte Burg and Berg Bock tunnels, there is a speed limit of usually 80 km / h over a length of around 18 kilometers, indicated by variable message signs , which is monitored by five fixed measuring points in each direction of travel. These are in the Rennsteig tunnel at kilometers 117 and 120, between the Hochwaldtunnel and Berg Bock tunnel at kilometer 125 and in the Berg Bock tunnel at kilometer 128. There is also a speed and distance in front of the Alte Burg tunnel at 112 and 113.5 kilometers -Measuring system. In 2003, an unapproved number plate recording system was tested here. Another distance measuring system is located directly in front of the Alte Burg tunnel when coming from Erfurt. The speed for determining the safety distance is also recorded on both systems.

particularities

Gusts of wind

On the valley bridges Reichenbach and Zahme Gera , several trucks or their trailers (each without a load) have been knocked down by strong gusts of wind since they opened in 2003, despite the presence of windsocks . In the north-sloping valleys, strong downdraft winds form from the ridge of the Thuringian Forest. This was known even before the bridges were built, but was not sufficiently taken into account. In stormy weather conditions, the speed is limited to 60 km / h with light-emitting variable message signs over a length of three kilometers in the area of the Reichenbach and Zahme Gera bridges and a no-overtaking ban for vehicles with a gross vehicle weight over 3.5 t is indicated. In January 2007 there were two closures of the A 71 in both directions - from AS Ilmenau-West to AS Oberhof or AS Gräfenroda - in connection with the storm low Kyrill , three years later a block for five followed because of the storm low Xynthia Hours. The subsequent construction of windbreak walls with the required height for trucks is not possible on the bridges for structural reasons. For wind protection, the bridge railing on the south side of the Reichenbach valley bridge was replaced by a 2.5 meter high wind protection wall with slats made of Plexiglas .

Blocking

At kilometer 144, before the Meiningen-Nord junction, the motorway with the Schindgraben viaduct crosses a limestone quarry that has been in operation since 1991. During the blasting , the highway is blocked by police cars for about 20 to 30 minutes due to the risk of flying stones . Since the blasting is still permitted according to the planning approval decision of 1999, a route shift was not possible due to nature conservation concerns and cost reasons and the deposits will last for 50 years, DEGES tried - so far unsuccessfully - to buy the quarry.

The four tunnels Alte Burg, Rennsteig, Hochwald and Berg Bock in the Thuringian Forest are classified in tunnel category E and are therefore not allowed to be used by vehicles with dangerous goods with the exception of UN numbers 2919, 3291, 3331, 3359 and 3373. A release is not foreseeable.

monitoring

According to the 6th activity report of the Thuringian State Commissioner for Data Protection, there are 280 swiveling cameras without zoom function in the tunnels of the ridge crossing and around them, which are used to monitor the flow of traffic and operational systems. There are also around 250 inductive counting points for recording traffic movements and controlling traffic flows. According to the report, neither the cameras nor the counting stations collect personal data.

Buildings in the Thuringian Forest

In the area of the forest motorway, many large engineering structures follow one another, the most notable ones are listed in the following table.

kilometre	Building	length	Max. height
92.5	Behringen tunnel	465 m
94.0	Wipfratal Bridge	176 m	15 m
101.5	Altwipfergrund valley bridge	278 m 280 m	35 m
102.5	Streichgrund Viaduct	449 m 450 m	28 m
107.0	Reichenbach Viaduct	1000 m	60 m
108.5	Tame Gera valley bridge	520 m	63 m
112.0	Old castle tunnel	874 m 866 m
113.5	Schwarzbachtal valley bridge	352 m 322 m	71 m
114.0	Wilde Gera valley bridge	552 m	110 m
114.5	Rennsteig tunnel	7916 m 7878 m
123.5	Hochwald tunnel	1056 m
126.0	Steinatal valley bridge	445 m	20 m
126.5	Berg Bock tunnel	2738 m 2718 m
131.0	Albrechtsgraben viaduct	770 m	80 m
133.5	Seßlestal valley bridge	320 m	53 m
135.0	Schafstalgrund viaduct	525 m	61 m
137.0	Bridge of contention	256 m	33 m
140.0	Schwarza valley bridge	675 m	68 m
142.0	Red Valley Viaduct	406 m	19 m
144.0	Schindgraben viaduct (quarry)	464 m	55 m
145.0	Judental valley bridge	456 m	45 m
147.0	Haseltal valley bridge	724 m 714 m	22 m
149.8	Werratal valley bridge	1194 m	34 m
152.5	Eichelberg tunnel	1097 m 1123 m
153.5	Jüchsen Viaduct	369 m	25 m

Records

Wilde Gera viaduct : with a span of 252 m, it is the largest reinforced concrete arch bridge in Germany that crosses a road
Rennsteig tunnel : at 7,916 m the longest road tunnel in Germany and after the Gran Sasso tunnel , the Plabutsch tunnel and the Seelisberg tunnel, the fourth longest two-tube road tunnel in Europe

Wildlife crossing protection

Game crossing is prevented by continuous game protection fences on both sides on the route between the Wipfratal bridge and the Werntal triangle. In the case of newly released sections, the game protection fence is usually only erected after all construction work has been completed.

In order to enable a safe Wildwechsel still rare in Germany overpasses between junctions Arnstadt-Süd (at kilometer 98) and Ilmenau-Ost and Meiningen-Nord and Meiningen-South (at km 149) and north of Münnerstadt, also were green bridges called , built. Otherwise, deer can pass through the numerous field and forest path underpasses of the A 71.

Drinking water protection

To the south of Münnerstadt , the motorway crosses a water protection zone over a length of more than ten kilometers, which is used to produce drinking water for the cities of Münnerstadt and Bad Kissingen . For this reason, the roadway there was sealed by installing a ten centimeter thick bituminous base layer. In addition, in this section, to prevent vehicles from leaving the lane, concrete protective walls were installed both in the median and at the edge of the lane instead of crash barriers . At the same time, these ensure that surface water is drained from the roadway into the drainage system. However, climbing aids are only available every 200 m, so that after an accident the recommendation to leave the vehicle and go behind the guardrail, if any, can only be followed in the worst case after walking 100 m on the edge of the road.

gallery

Cross the A 71 over the Wipfratal , on the right the high-speed line Nuremberg – Erfurt with the entrance to the Sandberg tunnel
Werra Valley Bridge at the Meiningen -Süd AS , at 1194 m the longest bridge on the A 71
Aerial view of exit 18 Oberhof, Rennsteig tunnel on the left , Hochwald tunnel on the right

Bibra viaduct between Rentwertshausen and Queienfeld

AS Heldrungen seen towards the Schmücketunnel ; Under traffic in September 2009

Trivia

As of January 1, 2016, the responsibilities for the A 71 were as follows:

State of Saxony-Anhalt
- in the area of the Südharz motorway triangle (1) and the Heldrungen junction (3) at the Oberröblingen motorway maintenance facility
Free State of Thuringia
- in the area of junction Heldrungen (3) and junction Ilmenau-Ost (15) at the road maintenance depot Erfurt,
- in the area of the connection point Ilmenau-Ost (15) and the state border Thuringia-Bavaria at the road maintenance depot Zella-Mehlis,
Free State of Bavaria
- in the area of the Thuringia-Bavaria border and the Münnerstadt junction (26) at the Rödelmaier road maintenance depot,
- in the area of the Münnerstadt junction (26) and the Schweinfurt / Bergrheinfeld motorway triangle with the A 70 (4/31) at the Schweinfurt road maintenance facility.

In July 2017, a documentary entitled "The Impossible Highway" appeared in MDR.

Web links

Commons : Bundesautobahn 71 - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Thüringer Allgemeine: September 3rd: The motorway is released. August 18, 2015

↑ The A 71 is the most expensive motorway in Germany. In: Die WELT from May 21, 2014

↑ The Autobahn. In: www.tri-c.de. Retrieved August 18, 2016 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f autobahn-online.de - Autobahns in Germany. In: www.autobahn-online.de. Retrieved August 18, 2016 .

↑ Planning, preparation and implementation of the A 71 federal motorway between the Sömmerda-Ost (B 176) and Erfurt-Bindersleben (B 7) junctions , information sheets of the Free State of Thuringia

↑ Grit Pommer: A 71 will not be finished this year. In: Thüringer Allgemeine, October 20, 2012.

↑ Next section A71 will be handed over on April 29th , Thüringer Allgemeine from April 10th, 2013.

↑ Traffic clearance A 71 perfect , online article by Kyffhäuser Nachrichten of April 29, 2013

↑ Transport Minister-Carius-kuendigt-Remedy-am-Nadeloehr-Soemmerda-Ost-an , Thüringer Allgemeine: Online article from October 16, 2012

↑ Construction freeze: The gap on the A71 near Sömmerda will not be closed until summer 2015. Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung, May 15, 2014, accessed on February 26, 2015 .

↑ Completion of the Leubinger Fürstenhügel service area on the A71 is delayed . ( thueringer-allgemeine.de [accessed on May 2, 2017]).

↑ Thuringia continues to build truck rest areas . ( thueringer-allgemeine.de [accessed December 2, 2017]).

↑ mdr.de: A71: New rest area opened at Sömmerda | MDR.DE . ( online [accessed February 4, 2018]). A71: New rest area opened at Sömmerda | MDR.DE ( Memento from February 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive )

^ City of Sömmerda (via Public) / A 71 service area "Leubinger Fürstenhügel" has a concession. Accessed February 4, 2018 .

↑ Ilona Stark: The service station at 71 near Sömmerda will be ready in March at the earliest. August 19, 2019, accessed on January 8, 2020 (German).

↑ ^a ^b mdr.de: Road construction: Neue Bundesstrasse 90 open with local winds | MDR.DE . ( mdr.de [accessed December 20, 2017]).

↑ ^a ^b ^c road network map of Thuringia as of May 2013 (PDF; 8.3 MB), last accessed on November 2, 2013

↑ ^a ^b Powerpoint with overview map of the projects of the BVWP 2015 including the new order of the federal highways. Retrieved November 22, 2013 .

↑ ^a ^b Projects of the State of Thuringia in the BVWP 2015. (PDF; 284 kB) Retrieved on November 22, 2013 .

↑ State Development Plan Saxony-Anhalt ( Memento from June 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Agreement between the Christian Democratic Union of Germany's State Association of Saxony-Anhalt and the Social Democratic Party of Germany's State Association of Saxony-Anhalt on the formation of a coalition in the sixth legislative period of the State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt 2011 to 2016 (PDF; 223 kB)

↑ BASt: Manual road traffic counting 2010, p. 66 u. 83 ( Memento from January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 935 kB)

↑ Karl-Heinz Klarner: North extension of the A71 near Sangerhausen is getting closer , online article in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung from March 7, 2013.

↑ A 71 AD A 38 / A 71 - AD A 14 ( Memento from April 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure

↑ [1]

↑ [2]

↑ Speed controls - nasty trap: speed cameras even at speed 60 . In: Free Word , November 14, 2008

↑ A-71 bridge now gets a windbreak. In: Free Word. May 7, 2009.

↑ Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure: Restriction of the use of road tunnels in accordance with the European Agreement on the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR)

↑ verkehrsrundschau.de: Freight forwarders: Approve motorway tunnel for dangerous goods transport , March 19, 2007

^ Thuringian State Office for Building and Transport: Areas of responsibility of the motorway maintenance depots in Thuringia , online at www.thueringen.de, accessed on September 18, 2016.

↑ Supreme building authority in the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, for construction and traffic: Free State of Bavaria - Road overview map - Responsibilities of the motorway maintenance authorities . PDF. January 1, 2016, online at www.baysis.bayern.de, accessed on September 17, 2016.

↑ Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR): The Impossible Autobahn , accessed on August 1, 2017.

[1] Thüringer Allgemeine: September 3rd: The motorway is released. August 18, 2015

[2] The A 71 is the most expensive motorway in Germany. In: Die WELT from May 21, 2014

[3] The Autobahn. In: www.tri-c.de. Retrieved August 18, 2016 .

[:0-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f autobahn-online.de - Autobahns in Germany. In: www.autobahn-online.de. Retrieved August 18, 2016 .

[5] Planning, preparation and implementation of the A 71 federal motorway between the Sömmerda-Ost (B 176) and Erfurt-Bindersleben (B 7) junctions , information sheets of the Free State of Thuringia

[6] Grit Pommer: A 71 will not be finished this year. In: Thüringer Allgemeine, October 20, 2012.

[7] Next section A71 will be handed over on April 29th , Thüringer Allgemeine from April 10th, 2013.

[8] Traffic clearance A 71 perfect , online article by Kyffhäuser Nachrichten of April 29, 2013

[9] Transport Minister-Carius-kuendigt-Remedy-am-Nadeloehr-Soemmerda-Ost-an , Thüringer Allgemeine: Online article from October 16, 2012

[10] Construction freeze: The gap on the A71 near Sömmerda will not be closed until summer 2015. Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung, May 15, 2014, accessed on February 26, 2015 .

[11] Completion of the Leubinger Fürstenhügel service area on the A71 is delayed . ( thueringer-allgemeine.de [accessed on May 2, 2017]).

[12] Thuringia continues to build truck rest areas . ( thueringer-allgemeine.de [accessed December 2, 2017]).