High Moselle crossing

Moselle valley near Zeltingen-Rachtig (2009)

Moselle valley near Zeltingen-Rachtig (2017)

Tunnel on the Eifel side

The Hochmosel crossing is a 25-kilometer, four-lane new section of the federal highway 50 between the Wittlich and Longkamp interchange . The new line is intended to replace the old route of federal highway 50, which is detoured through localities, and to connect the A 60 and A 1 near Wittlich with the A 61 near Rheinböllen in a more direct and autobahn-like manner. The transport policy goal is an efficient European trunk road E 42 . The street cross-section is 26 meters.

The new line was originally supposed to cost a total of around 330 million euros. According to the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Infrastructure, the figure has been estimated at 360 million euros since October 2011. In August 2014, the Rhineland-Palatinate Transport Secretary called Günter core costs of 456 million euros and a two year later completion in 2019. ^[dated] The road project has, according to the country Mobilität Rheinland-Pfalz (LBM) in November 2019 a total of approximately 480 million Euros.

Sections

The Hochmosel crossing consists of sections I, IIa and IIb. Section I (5.3 kilometers) is located between the Wittlich and Platten motorway junction . It had been under construction since 2003 and opened to traffic in 2014. The costs are estimated at around 70 million euros.

Section IIa is around 5.9 kilometers long, plus there is a feeder between Erden and Lösnich that is around three kilometers long. It runs between plates and earth . The Hochmosel Bridge is located in this section . The costs were named in 2013 at around 200 million euros. Section IIb lies between Erden and Longkamp and is around 14 kilometers long. The estimated costs in 2013 were around 90 million euros.

In Section IIa, the Moselle crossing is between Platten and Erden or Lösnich . The heart of the section is the Hochmosel bridge in the large Moselle loop between Bernkastel-Kues and Traben-Trarbach . The structure is around 1.7 kilometers long and 160 meters high. The section of the route includes, as large engineering structures, the two valley bridges Bieberbach and Wasserbaum, each 200 meters long, and the Weierborn valley bridge, 100 meters long. On the western slope of the Moselle there is also a 100 meter long tunnel under the Moselle high ridge near Ürzig in front of the Hochmosel bridge. It was made in an open construction with a rectangular cross-section. Immediately behind the eastern bridgehead of the Hochmosel bridge is a junction that connects the main roads in the Moselle valley, starting from the Lösnich Moselle bridge, directly to the B50n via a feeder. The construction contracts were mainly given to medium-sized companies from the greater Trier area. After initially considering the realization of the sections IIa and IIb through financing through a toll that a PPP company charges for use, and start-up financing from the state, the state finally provided the full financing. The state bears 20 million euros of the construction costs, the rest is financed by the federal government, in particular with toll funds and the budget for federal highways. The handover of Section II was initially planned for 2016; the official start of construction was April 27, 2009.

The Hochmosel crossing was opened to traffic on November 21, 2019. In the area of the Hochmosel bridge, 25,000 vehicles per day are forecast.

controversy

The Hochmosel Bridge is the name given to the high bridge based on the model of the Winninger Bridge (completed in 1972), which is the first and only structure of its kind in the Middle Moselle and shortens the connection for motorized individual traffic between Wittlich in the Eifel and Morbach in the Hunsrück .

Proponents hope for a decrease in the volume of traffic in the local communities of the Bernkastel-Wittlich district. In their opinion, this will improve the quality of the living environment and promote the development of tourism in the region. Furthermore, the Hochmosel crossing will improve the previously poor connection to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport from the north and west due to the Moselle valley .

Critics consider the construction project superfluous, as the connection between the western North Sea ports and the Rhine-Main area is via existing trunk roads - in the first part the A 61 from Venlo or the A 4 from Aachen and finally between Cologne and Frankfurt am Main the A 3 - produced on a demonstrably shorter route and a better connection to the Moselle valley is not given due to the unfavorable route. They also refer to the study by the graduate geographer Herrig (see the literature section ), which was received in a statement on the federal transport route plan , in which the project is not endorsed with regard to the accessibility effects on the one hand and the encroachment on nature on the other.

Due to its size, the Hochmosel crossing represents a considerable, non-compensable interference in the landscape, which has a negative effect on tourism. In addition, the water balance of the world-famous Wehlener Sonnenuhr , Zeltinger Himmelreich, Graacher Himmelreich and Bernkasteler Doctor vineyards is expected to be disrupted, because the route on the so-called Moselsporn - a foothill of the Hunsrück - is dug up to 15 meters deep into the ground near the edge of the rock.

According to the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate, the landscape of the Moselle valley is being changed more by the restructuring of the viticulture itself than by road construction measures. The area under cultivation in the 240-kilometer-long Moselle valley was reduced by around 4,400 hectares to around 8,000 hectares between 1989 and 2009. Furthermore, a disruption of the water balance can be ruled out, since the forest belt above the south-western vineyard slope is continuously preserved. In addition, the route on the Moselle spur will mostly run north in the immediate vicinity of the watershed, which means that it will not affect the vineyards. In the section where the route runs within the southern part of the watershed, the surface water occurring in the area of the route is immediately returned to the ground and not discharged over a large area, which takes into account the maintenance of the lateral water balance. Above all, the state government criticizes the approach of the critics of the project, who speak in the media around the world of a "destruction of the Moselle valley" and thus cause the tourism and wine region Moselle a much more serious damage to the image than the project itself.

The most prominent critics of the building include the international wine experts Hugh Johnson , Jancis Robinson and Stuart Pigott as well as the top winemakers Ernst Loosen, Katharina Prüm and Markus Molitor . They doubt the statements of the state government that the massive construction activity would have no consequences for the water balance of the world-famous vineyards, especially since there is no separate report. They demand a responsible handling of these vineyards and the Moselle cultural landscape as a whole, which is not given by the construction of the high Moselle crossing.

While the SPD as well as the CDU and FDP support the construction, the Greens and the Left reject the project.

After the state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate in April 2011 , the ruling SPD and the new coalition partner Die Grünen agreed to complete the Hochmosel crossing. Instead, the construction of the also controversial Middle Rhine Bridge will be dispensed with.

Planning approval decision

In 2003, the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate partially upheld a lawsuit brought by nature conservationists against the first planning approval decision . The judges found that the project violated the European bird protection directive. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig had rejected an appeal by the state at the time.

The plan approval decision was revised and, as part of a new plan approval procedure, was determined as a supplementary plan approval decision, against which the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) sued unsuccessfully. The eighth Senate of the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate rejected the environmental protection organization's action against the plan approval decision for the Hochmosel crossing on November 22, 2007 and did not allow the appeal to the Federal Administrative Court. On July 17, 2008, the Federal Administrative Court rejected the non-admission complaint filed by the BUND .

Before the Petitions Committee of the Bundestag , a petition on the 2011 process is under parliamentary scrutiny. In the course of a petition against the construction of the Hochmoselquerung before the petition committee of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament, the latter spoke out against a construction freeze.

Four-lane expansion to Hahn Airport

On November 21, 2019, the Hochmosel crossing including the associated Hochmosel bridge was opened to traffic .

According to the State Office for Mobility, it will probably take years before the B50 can be used continuously in four lanes up to the A61. According to the State Office for Mobility, the connecting route is to be expanded in three construction phases to Hahn Airport . An approximately five kilometer long connecting route from Longkamp to Zolleiche train station near Kleinich will be built parallel to the old B50 with four lanes, starting at the transition to the old B50, which leads from Longkamp towards Belginum .

literature

Georg Herrig: The expected effects of the A60 / B50n project on the accessibility in the areas of Brussels / Liège, Rhineland-Palatinate and Rhine-Main. In: Spatial transport sciences - application with a concept. Series: Material for Applied Geography, Volume 26, ed. on behalf of the German Association for Applied Geography e. V. Arnulf Marquardt-Kuron; Konrad Schliephake (Ed.), Kuron, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-923623-17-8 , 173-194.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ dpa / lrs: Hochmoselbrücke will probably be more expensive. In: Trierischer Volksfreund from October 20, 2011.

^ Rhein-Zeitung, August 28, 2014

↑ End of a mega road construction project. Thousands celebrate on the Hochmosel Bridge on November 16, 2019 on swr.de, accessed on November 16, 2019

↑ ^a ^b ^c Archive link ( memento of February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 25, 2014

↑ http://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2014/143-baer-verkehrfreigabe-b50.html

↑ http://www.hochmoseluebergang.rlp.de/index.php?id=79

↑ Frank Giarra: Around a billion for road construction. In: Trierischer Volksfreund from January 9, 2009.

↑ TMVG PR editors: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Economic factor B 50 new. Advantages for construction companies, restaurants, accommodation providers and, in the long term, for the entire region ) In: Special publication by the Trierischer Volksfreunds dated October 11, 2011, ( PDF - File; 170 kB).@1@ 2

^ Statement by the Federal Ministry of Transport on financing , December 16, 2009.

↑ Hochmosel Bridge: Current status as of October 4, 2019

↑ faz.net, November 20, 2019

↑ Explanatory report on the plan approval procedure of April 30, 1999, Annex 1

↑ Press release on lateral water distribution (PDF; 142 kB) - BUND , September 11, 2009.

^ Statement from the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate on the High Moselle crossing from April 12, 2010 ( Memento from May 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Thomas Holl: The "Hochmoselübergang". When vines cry. In: FAZ of April 27, 2011.

↑ Does infrastructure take precedence over prime locations? Declaration by the VDP on the Hochmosel crossing, April 2010, with links to other articles.