Gerlos street

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / maintenance / AT-B
	State road B165 in Austria
	165
	Basic data
Start of the street:	Mittersill ; ( 47 ° 17 ′ N , 12 ° 29 ′ E )
End of street:	Zell am Ziller ; ( 47 ° 14 ′ N , 11 ° 53 ′ E )
Overall length:	61 km
State :	Salzburg; Tyrol;
	Gerlosstrasse between Gerlos and the state border
	Salzburg
	Zell am See district
	Tyrol
	Schwaz district

The Gerlosstraße or Gerlosstraße is the national road B 165 in Austria . It is 61 km long and runs from Mittersill , Salzburg , in the valley of the Salzach past the Großvenediger to the eponymous Gerlos Pass . Beyond the pass, the road leads into Zillertal , Tyrol , where it meets the Zillertalstraße B 169.

In Wald , the Krimmler Landesstraße L 113 branches off, which leads through Krimml , to which the Gerlos Alpine Road , which is subject to toll, joins the B 165 again at the Gerlos Pass.

history

Origins

The first road connection from Salzburg to Tyrol, however, has a much older history. On the Rohrberg high above Zell am Ziller , Tyrol, a rich gold discovery was made in 1630, which promised to far surpass the very profitable gold mining on the nearby Hainzenberg since 1506.

The old dispute between Salzburg and Innsbruck over the half / half division of the Zillertal mining profits agreed upon in 1427 flared up again, and anger from Salzburg miners destroyed several Tyrolean smelting plants in the Zell am Ziller area. In addition, the welcome gold discovery on the Rohrberg underscored an old strategic weakness. The Zillertal belonged (until 1803) to the independent Archdiocese of Salzburg . But the only drivable route from Salzburg to the Zillertal led through Bavarian and Tyrolean “foreign countries”.

These were all reasons to forcefully establish a "domestic" connection from Salzburg to the Zillertal. In 1630, old plans suddenly came into focus again to expand the lonely 30 km long mule track from Wald im Pinzgau over the Gerlos Pass to Zell am Ziller into a path that was not only accessible but also passable. On this the gold ore from Rohrberg and Hainzenberg could be carted over the Gerlos to the efficient smelters in Mühlbach bei Bramberg and in Lend .

In one year around 70 workers completed this 3.5 m wide lane so far that in the summer of 1631 a four-in-hand carriage made the bumpy opening ride over the Gerlos. Over the years, however, floods and landslides destroyed this old Gerlosstrasse to such an extent that only one footpath remained, the Ronachweg .

Plans for a mountain railway - from the new Inntal Railway in Jenbach through the Zillertal via the Gerlos to Mittersill - in 1868 were rejected, as was the proposal for an urgently needed railway line from Salzburg to Innsbruck.

Previous routes and names

The Krimmler road is one of the 20 roads that are expressly described in Salzburgerstraße law of 14 January 1873 as state roads.

From 1910, Gerlosstrasse was to be built on the Tyrolean side as a rival road. In Austrian legal language, competition refers to the joint financing of a project by various institutions, each of which assumes a percentage of the maintenance costs specified by law. In this case it took over

the Austrian Empire 50%
the state of Tyrol 35%
the neighboring communities 15%

the planned construction costs of 254,100 guilders.

As part of a job creation measure, Gerlosstrasse was expanded into an autostraße in 1934/35 and opened to traffic on June 26, 1935.

The B 165 belonged to the network of federal highways in Austria from January 1, 1951 to March 31, 2002 . Since then it has been classified as a state road in both Salzburg and Tyrol. Since the downgrading to the state road , the old Gerlos pass road has been part of the B 165 again instead of the Gerlos Alpine road .

Road conditions

Since the Gerlos Alpine Road, which is subject to toll, is a very well developed road for traffic, no expansion of the B 165 between Wald im Pinzgau and the top of the pass is sought.

The section from the end of Wald at km 23.2 to the Salzach Bridge at km 30.1 is in very poor condition (April 2015):

partially expanded to only one lane
Weight restriction of 2.5 tonnes (excluding delivery services up to 8 tonnes)
Incline between 17 and 20%
confusing curves
very poor road surface with many wide cracks and sagging
speed restrictions of 30 to 50 km / h in sections

Individual evidence

↑ According to Salzburg state law (state law consolidated Salzburg: Entire legal regulation for the adoption of existing federal highways B as state roads, law of April 24, 2002)

↑ According to Tyrolean provincial law ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Decision of the Tyrolean Parliament of May 15, 2002, published in the State Law Gazette No. 68/2002, PDF file; 66 kB) @1@ 2

↑ Law of August 22, 1897, regarding the creation of competition roads in Tyrol. LGBl. No. 31/1897.

^ Wiener Zeitung of June 27, 1935, p. 9

↑ Federal Roads Act of February 18, 1948, Directory D.

Web links

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

Old Gerlosstrasse . In: Salzburger Nachrichten : Salzburgwiki .

B165	Like the other former federal highways, Gerlos Strasse was part of the federal administration. Since April 1, 2002, it has been under state administration and continues to have the B in the number, but not the name Bundesstraße.

[1] According to Salzburg state law (state law consolidated Salzburg: Entire legal regulation for the adoption of existing federal highways B as state roads, law of April 24, 2002)