Elbe crossing (A 20)

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Elbe crossing
use Road tunnel
traffic connection A 20
Number of tubes 2
length 6507 m (entire structure)
5670 m ( entire tunnel)
construction
building-costs 1,032 million euros (as of 2014)
start of building planned
release Not fixed

The planned Elbe crossing of Autobahn 20 will be the longest underwater tunnel in Germany with a total of 5670 meters and the second longest road tunnel in Germany after the Rennsteig tunnel . It is a joint project between the states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein . The two-tube tunnel is part of Hamburg's northwest bypass via the A 26 and A 20 as well as the coastal motorway .

The A 20 motorway will cross the Elbe between Drochtersen in Lower Saxony and Glückstadt in Schleswig-Holstein . It is also an important section of the future Amsterdam - Copenhagen metropolitan connection .

Planned route of the A 20 through Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony with Elbe crossing

planning

Preliminary examination and planning

Planning and construction are carried out by the two federal states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. On May 14, 2002 the state government of Schleswig-Holstein decided in favor of the preferred road with Elbe crossing at Glückstadt / Drochtersen and the preliminary investigations were completed in January / February 2003. The line was determined by the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMVBS) on July 28, 2005. The BMVBS called for a technical feasibility study with regard to possible variants for a fixed Elbe crossing. Both tunnel and bridge solutions should be compared. The associated feasibility study included extensive investigations with final evaluations of various crossing solutions (drilling, immersed tunnel and high bridge variants). As a result, it turned out that, due to the difficult ground conditions, the Elbe can only be crossed under by means of a bored tunnel using the so-called shield tunneling method. The tunneling is to be carried out using two separate tunnel tubes, each for one direction of travel from north to south.

In July 2003, all sections of the A 20, including the Elbe crossing, were fully classified as “urgent needs” in the 2003 Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan. The building design was approved by the Federal Ministry of Transport on December 19, 2008. The structural design for the tunnel was approved on June 3, 2009.

Planning approval procedure in Schleswig in Schleswig-Holstein

The planning approval procedure for the Schleswig-Holstein part was initiated in May 2009. The planning approval decision was made on December 30, 2014.

Planning approval procedure in Lower Saxony

In Lower Saxony, the subsoil investigation was completed in autumn 2005, and the plan approval procedure was initiated on April 16, 2009. The planning approval decision was issued on March 30, 2015.

Lawsuits brought by the Federal Environment and Nature Conservation Germany and a wind farm operator against the planning approval decision were dismissed by the Federal Administrative Court on November 10, 2016 . The Federal Administrative Court ruled that the concerns of the wind farm operator as well as the requirements of nature conservation in the FFH and bird protection areas "Lower Elbe" had been sufficiently taken into account.

As with the planning approval decision for the Schleswig-Holstein part, there were also complaints in Lower Saxony regarding the traceability in the area of ​​water protection. The project group responsible for planning at the Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport then submitted the required documents. The public participation in the regional planning procedure and the planning approval procedure was assessed as "error-free" by the Federal Administrative Court. The planning approval decision for the Lower Saxony part of the Elbe crossing is now legally binding.

Further planning and construction preparation

On April 1, 2019, an agreement between Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein was signed on the initiative of the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport, Enak Ferlemann . Both countries thus assured their cooperation in planning and construction preparation and agreed on a cost sharing. Bernd Buchholz, Schleswig-Holstein's Transport Minister, said that further planning and the compilation of the construction documents would take two and a half years to complete. This agreement is a continuation of the 2005 planning agreement.

From 2021, the federal motorway company, founded on September 13, 2018, is to take over the lead for the further planning and construction of the A 20.

construction

Planned start of construction

The start of construction of the Elbe Tunnel depends on several factors. Initially, building rights only exist with a legally binding planning approval decision. Due to the ongoing troubleshooting process, this is not yet the case in Schleswig-Holstein (as of 2019, see above).

In addition, the construction of the Elbe crossing should only begin when traffic is effective both on the Schleswig-Holstein side and in Lower Saxony.

In Schleswig-Holstein, the planning approval decision regarding the connection of the Elbe crossing to the A 20 in the section from Weede to Wittenborn has meanwhile been declared illegal. In 2019, there were two troubleshooting procedures: one for species protection and one for variant testing.

In Lower Saxony, the subsequent Kehdingen cross is in the planning approval process in 2019 . Construction section 5a of the A 26 to the south-east of the motorway junction is in the planning approval process. For construction section 7 of the A 20 to the southwest, the planning approval procedure as of January 2020 is to begin shortly. An investigation by the Lower Saxony state authority for road construction and traffic assumes that the Kehdingen motorway junction with the subsequent construction sections 5a of the A 26 and construction section 7 of the A 20 will already be used as an important traffic axis before the Elbe crossing is realized. This relieves the load on the L 111 and the district roads K 27 and K 12. According to the investigation, as soon as the Elbe tunnel is opened, the downstream road network in the Drochtersen and Stade area and the Elbe tunnel of the A 7 in Hamburg will be further relieved.

construction

The tunnel is to be built with two tunnel boring machines from north to south. This creates a two-tube underpass with two lanes per tunnel tube. Here, a circular cross-section is provided, which should consist of precast reinforced concrete parts ( segments ). Cross-passages will connect the two tunnel tubes with each other after construction is completed.

The purpose of the crossing is to minimize interference in the FFH area on the Lower Saxony side and the directly adjacent Drochtersen location.

building-costs

The construction is currently still in the planning phase. Therefore, there may be changes in the estimated construction costs, as shown below. It is also decisive whether only the costs for the tunnel are given or the adjacent route sections are also included.

date source Cost estimate
September 15, 2008 Answer from the federal government 0.9019 billion euros
July 31, 2012 Feasibility study by the BMVBS 1.1 billion euros
June 20, 2013 Debate in the state parliament SH 1.3 billion euros
July 16, 2014 Report of the Federal Audit Office 1.5 billion euros
2014 BMVI - PRINS 1.032 billion euros

financing

On April 1, 2019, an agreement was passed between Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, in which Transport Ministers Bernd Althusmann (Lower Saxony) and Bernd Buchholz (Schleswig-Holstein) agreed to cooperate in construction preparation and agreed on a cost allocation for the costs of planning and construction preparation . Schleswig-Holstein should bear 40 percent of the costs, Lower Saxony 60 percent. The financing of the Elbe crossing between Drochtersen and Glückstadt has thus been politically agreed between the two countries. Earlier plans for a toll were discarded. Financing for the construction and maintenance of the Elbe Tunnel is provided entirely by the Federal Ministry of Transport, which the federal government decided at the beginning of February.

Original plans for a toll

The financing was originally supposed to take place through an F-model based on the Highway Construction Private Financing Act , with start-up financing from the federal government of 20 percent. Refinancing should take place via the charging of a toll. However, the search for investors was unsuccessful. At the beginning of the financial planning, the French group Vinci brought the total costs for the further construction of the A 20 from Bad Segeberg, including the construction of the new, toll Elbe tunnel 2013, into play. A study from the end of July 2012 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport showed that private financing with a return of 10 percent would be feasible for the operator, provided that the federal government took over half of the construction costs of the tunnel. Due to the planned project volume, however, the necessary budget could only have been released within the framework of a priority financing at the expense of other requirement plan projects. Implementation with funds from the Connecting Europe Facility was also considered.

The former Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, however, moved away from toll plans for the tunnel in 2017. Enak Ferlemann, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transport, said at the signing of an agreement between Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein on March 30, 2019 that the construction of the planned Elbe tunnel will probably be carried out by the state and will therefore not be awarded to a private investor. The planned guarantee of financing in the planning agreement is also moving away from a public-private partnership and thus also from the toll.

safety

In its judgment of April 28, 2016, the Federal Administrative Court highlighted the following planned security measures. The safety concept includes permanent monitoring of the maximum speed of 80 km / h, a detection system for fires in the tunnel with automated notification to the operations center, a ventilation system to reduce the spread of smoke in the event of a fire and 20 emergency exits as a cross connection between the two tubes. The court also emphasized that renegotiations in Schleswig-Holstein resulted in further improvements in the security concept. Firstly, five cross passages (previously two) are provided between the two tubes, which enable emergency vehicles to connect between the two tunnels. Second, the state of Schleswig-Holstein decided that a full-time fire station should be created for the tunnel. This measure relates to the lawsuit brought by the Kollmar municipality , whose volunteer fire brigade should initially take over responsibility for the Elbe crossing.

controversy

A study by Public Project Consultants GmbH on the Elbe crossing, in which representatives from business, associations and politics from Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein were surveyed, comes to the result that over 85 percent of all respondents considered the A-20 Elbe crossing to be very relevant or relevant for hold the region. Not only advantages for commuters, but also new sales areas and customer groups for entrepreneurs could result from the Elbe crossing. The experts questioned therefore see economic potential in the implementation of the Elbe crossing.

A fixed Elbe crossing is sometimes seen as costly and unnecessary. The Left parliamentary group in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament rejects the construction and believes that it would be far more cost-effective and completely sufficient to optimize the Glückstadt-Wischhafen ferry connection . The tunnel would probably mean enormous economic difficulties for the Elbe ferry. The complaint filed by the ferry operator was dismissed by the Federal Administrative Court in 2016.

In their draft of an election platform for the state elections on May 6, 2012 in Schleswig-Holstein, the Greens had spoken out against further construction of the A 20 west of the A 21. To relieve the A 7, the Greens proposed strengthening the rail connections in the draft. In any case, the tunnel was a bad plan, as it would " drown " when the sea level rises .

Furthermore, the expansion of existing highways and the upgrading of the rail network are proposed as alternatives that are appropriate to the needs.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Sven-Michael Veit: A tunnel as an island. Die Tageszeitung, April 2, 2019, p. 25 ePaper 21 Nord , accessed on February 14, 2020 (ISSN 0931-9085).
  2. ↑ The new Elbe crossing between Drochtersen and Glückstadt (A 20). Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport, January 26, 2017, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Press Release No. 93/2016. Federal Administrative Court, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b A-20 Elbe crossing: Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony seal cooperation for implementation planning of the Elbe tunnel in the presence of the federal government. Port of Hamburg, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Press release No. 77/2013. Federal Administrative Court, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  6. ^ A 20: New building in Schleswig-Holstein - Section 3. DEGES , accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  7. ↑ A 20 / A 26: Planning of the Kehdingen cross. Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Section 5a: From Drochtersen (K 28) to Freiburger Straße / L 111. Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Section 7: From the L 114 near Elm to the junction A 20 / A 26 near Drochtersen. Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  10. ↑ How the roads in the Stade area benefit from the construction of the motorway between Stade and Drochterse: Relief from the A 26 and the coastal motorway. Kreiszeitung Wochenblatt, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  11. ^ A 20: Elbe crossing between Drochtersen and Glückstadt. Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Status of the plans for the further expansion of the A 20. (PDF file; 118 kB) Printed matter 16/10220. German Bundestag, September 15, 2008, accessed on November 15, 2017 (Bt-Drs. 16/10142, answer of the Federal Government to a small question from the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group of September 12, 2008).
  13. ↑ NDR: According to the study, private financing of the Elbe crossing is feasible. Berliner Zeitung, August 23, 2012, accessed on November 15, 2017 : “The experts link the feasibility of the private model to two conditions: the state bears half of the pure construction costs of around 1.1 billion euros and the A20 will be completed . "
  14. ↑ Plenary minutes 18/31, 31st session, Thursday, June 20, 2013. (PDF file; 509 kB, p. 2495) (No longer available online.) Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament, June 20, 2013, archived from the original on November 16, 2017 ; accessed on November 15, 2017 : "Andreas Tietze, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen: With the proposal that has now been submitted with the suitability assessment, according to which 50% of the construction costs should now be borne by the federal government, a requirement has been addressed. At € 1.3 billion that is € 650 million. “ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landtag.ltsh.de
  15. ^ Report to the budget committee of the German Bundestag on the investment requirements for the planned Elbe tunnel of the federal motorway A 20 near Glückstadt. (PDF file; 1.85 MB, p. 18) Federal Audit Office , July 16, 2014, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Dossier A 20 Drochtersen (south trough) - Glückstadt (B 431). bvwp-projekte.de, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  17. ↑ A-20 Elbe crossing: Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony seal cooperation for implementation planning of the Elbe tunnel in the presence of the federal government. Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Labor, Transport and Digitization, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  18. ^ Elbe crossing A 20. State of Schleswig-Holstein, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Status of planning for the further expansion of the A 20. German Bundestag, September 15, 2008, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Federal and state governments for new Elbe crossing via PPP. Verkehrsrundschau, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Section 7: From the L 114 near Elm to the junction A 20 / A 26 near Drochtersen. Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  22. ^ CDU regional association Schleswig-Holstein - financing of the A20 Elbe crossing. (No longer available online.) June 28, 2013, archived from the original ; accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  23. ^ News from Schleswig-Holstein. NDR, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  24. ↑ A20-Elbtunnel: planning agreement regulates cost allocation. Süddeutsche Zeitung, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Elbtunnel A 20: Planning errors found - complaints nevertheless largely unsuccessful. Federal Administrative Court, April 28, 2016, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  26. ^ A 20: New building in Schleswig-Holstein - Section 8. DEGES, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Elbtunnel A 20: planning errors found - complaints de. Federal Administrative Court, February 14, 2020, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Funding Association for the Fixed Lower Elbe Crossing - Study A 20 Elbe Crossing. PSPC, accessed February 14, 2020 .
  29. ^ News from Schleswig-Holstein. NDR, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  30. ↑ Press release No. 01/10, Die Linke. (PDF file; 65 kB) Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament, January 5, 2010, accessed on November 15, 2017 : "Ranka Prante:" The construction of a fixed Elbe crossing is a superfluous billion-dollar grave and must be stopped at the beginning! ""
  31. ↑ Peter von Altwörden: The ferry turns across. (PDF file; 537 kB) Stader Tageblatt. elbfaehre.de, May 15, 2004, accessed on November 15, 2017 : "A tunnel meant the end for the medium-sized company."
  32. ↑ Wayback Machine: The green work program for Schleswig-Holstein (PDF file). November 25, 2011, accessed February 14, 2020 .
  33. ↑ More teachers, less road construction: This is how the Greens want to score in the election Hamburger Abendblatt, September 27, 2011, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Page no longer available online, search in web archives: Förderkreis Waterkant e. V., June 2009.