National road

The Härkingen section towards Zurich (1967), where the N1 and N2 run together. These motorways have been part of the national road network since their construction.

In Switzerland , national roads are federally operated roads such as motorways , motorways or main roads . The national road network in Switzerland therefore does not correspond to the motorway and road network in Switzerland , because firstly, some main roads belong to the national road network and, secondly, there are also cantonal motorways and motorways. In the case of roads that are classified as national roads, the federal government pays for the financing, operation, maintenance and expansion. The Federal Roads Office ( Astra for short ) is responsible.

history

prehistory

Up until the 1950s, road construction was the sole responsibility of the cantons, which aligned road construction and maintenance according to their finances. Deviating from this principle, the federal government was involved in road construction for the first time in 1958 when it concluded a state treaty with Italy on behalf of the cantons of Valais and Vaud for the construction of the road tunnel under the Great St. Bernhard .

As early as March 15, 1957, however, the Federal Council had assured the cantons in a circular letter that cantons willing to build would immediately receive the same federal subsidies as those who broke ground after the federal regulation. Economic concerns, even from the highest authorities, against forced road construction arose from a possible overheating of the boom , which was already known at that time - but a slowdown in construction activity was expected from 1960, as some power plant construction would then also be terminated.

First law on the national road network

In June 1960, parliament passed the law on a national road network, which gave the federal government the authority to build roads. National roads are defined in this law as roads of national importance. Planning, financing, construction and maintenance are the responsibility of the federal government. The rough routes were defined and given the "N" numbering, and the individual route sections were divided into three expansion classes that are still valid today:

class	property	execution
1st class national roads	only motor vehicles, mandatory level, separate lanes	usually designed as a motorway
2nd class national roads	only motor vehicles, necessarily level, not necessarily directionally separated lanes	mostly built as a car road
3rd class national roads	basically all road users, requirement to avoid level crossings and through town roads	main roads co-financed by the federal government

A special form is the classification suffix "E", which identifies express roads (also called high-speed roads or urban national roads) in urban areas - the motivation for this is a changed financing key.

The first smaller sections of the new national road network already existed in 1960 and were thus transferred to the network. At the same time, the project planning and construction work for new sections was pushed ahead with high pressure. In 1962/63, the first new motorways were opened in the national road network. Among them was the Grauholzautobahn between Bern's Wankdorffeld and Schönbühl on May 10, 1962. It was the first section of the N1, which today leads across Switzerland from Geneva to St. Gallen. The section between Geneva and Lausanne followed in 1963. It served as a feeder to the national exhibition “Expo 64”.

The planned national road network was enlarged by Parliament around 1970 and again around 1986 to a large extent. As with the cantonal road projects, financial problems and objections brought many national road projects to a standstill. Around 20 years after the start of construction, over 80% of the projected network was completed in the 1980s - but many technically demanding and expensive buildings were left out. In 1985, the mandatory toll in the form of an annual vignette was introduced for the motorways and motorways of the national road network .

In 1996, road users switched from N-numbering to A-numbering, but the N-scheme is continued within the authorities. A street provided with the A number plate (for example ) can thus be both a motorway and a car road.

At the end of 2008, the Federal Roads Office announced that around 5.5 billion francs would be invested in removing bottlenecks on the national road network over the next 20 years. In a first stage, additional lanes are to be built for 1.58 billion Swiss francs on the sections Härkingen – Wiggertal (N1 / N2), Blegi – Rütihof (N4), the Zurich north bypass (N1 / N4) and in the Crissier area (N1 / N9) become.

Inclusion of further roads in the national road network

In March 2013, the National Council and the Council of States approved an increase in the vignette price from 40 to 100 Swiss francs . This was intended to finance the inclusion of around 400 kilometers of cantonal roads in the national road network. The Swiss electorate rejected the price increase in a referendum on November 24, 2013. The price remained unchanged and the expansion of the national road network became obsolete. As a result, a new strategy for expanding the national road network was developed and presented to the people on February 12, 2017. This approved the federal resolution on the creation of a fund for national highways and urban traffic (NAF). Thus, a new, unlimited fund was anchored in the constitution. This created the basis for the federal government to invest enough money in the operation, maintenance and expansion of the national highways in the long term and to provide sufficient financial support for agglomeration projects in the future.

As part of the NAF decision, 400 km of cantonal roads will be added to the national road network by 2020. These are roads that meet the changed requirements (population growth from 5.4 to 8 million inhabitants and five times more road traffic compared to the motorway decision of 1960). The aim is to better connect medium-sized cities and agglomerations as well as mountain areas and rural areas to the national highway network. The cantons contribute 60 million francs a year to the operation and maintenance of these routes.

Canton	route	kilometre
VS	Martigny-Expo - connection to the Gd. St-Bernard pass	39.30
SH	Schaffhausen - Thayngen	6.22
SH	Schaffhausen - barges	- 11.09
BE	Bern (Schönbühl) - Biel	25.27
FR, BE, NE	Murten - Thielle	14.61
NE	Neuchâtel - Le Locle - Col des Roches	10/27
BE, VS	Spiez - Kandersteg Goppenstein - Gampel	35.42
ZG, ZH	Baar - Hirzel - Wädenswil	02/13
TI	Mendrisio - Stabio - Gaggiolo	4.98
TG, SG	Grüneck - Meggenhus	39.08
TI	Bellinzona - Locarno - Ascona	19.95
ZH	Brüttisellen - Wetzikon - Rüti	26.32
ZH, SG, SZ	Rüti - Rapperswil - Schmerikon - Reichenburg	11.24
SG, AR, AI	St. Gallen (Winkeln) - Herisau - Appenzell	16.65
BL, JU	Délemont Est - Hagnau	08/36
GL	Niederurnen - Glarus	8.81
BL	Pratteln - Liestal - Sissach	9.46
AG	Aarau - Aarau East	5.35
GR	Thusis - Silvaplana	54.78
Total		382.55

The classification took place on January 1, 2020. Thus, the N4 between Schaffhausen and Bargen was also released from the national road network, which means that for the first time since the first binding definition of the network in 1960, a road that had already been built fell out of the network.

Military importance

When planning the national road network, the requirement of the Swiss Air Force for alternative landing strips was taken into account. A straight line of around 2 km in length was chosen on various sections. The guardrails were replaced by steel cables and could be removed by the troops within a few hours if necessary. After cleaning the lanes, painting the landing signs and setting up the radio links, such a section could be used by aircraft . Most of the median strips on motorways are paved again today.

For the time being, the last section of the motorway to be “ suitable for landing ” is likely to be the A1 section Murten - Payerne , which opened in the 1990s , parallel to the runway at the Payerne military airfield .

The use of airplanes was sporadically tested in practice by WK units (Flpl Abt). The first section at Oensingen was used on September 16, 1970 from 12 noon to 3 p.m. for a military exercise that was characteristic of the Cold War. The secrecy in advance was accordingly great. All unnecessary announcements were avoided, yet many spectators attended the spectacle and the media reported about it.

The exercise carried out by the Aviation and Airfield Regiment 3 with the DH.112 Venom made great demands on the infrastructure and the skills of the pilots. The exercise was successful and with good experience, which served as a lesson for further landing and take-off exercises on other sections of the Swiss network, the last time in 1991 in Ticino .

date	Exercise name	place	National road	Troop	Base - aircraft / number - Note
16 Sep 1970	"U STRADA"	Oensingen	N1	Flpl Dept. 9	Alpnach - de Havilland military airfield DH.112 Venom : Take- off from 12 Venom
26 Sep 1974	"U STRADA"	Münsingen	N6	Flpl Abt 12 & 13	INT - de Havilland DH.112 Venom military airfield Meiringen - Hawker Hunter
28 Sep 1977	«U NOLA»	Flums	N3	Flpl Dept. 9	Alpnach Military Airfield - Hawker Hunter
June 1, 1978	"U NOSTA"	Alpnach	N8	Flpl Dept. 9	Alpnach Military Airfield - Hawker Hunter : Start of 6 hunters from the road
May 6, 1980	"U ABEX"	Aigle-Bex	N9	Flpl Rgt 1	Raron - Hawker Hunter , Turtmann - Hawker Hunter , Sion Airport - Hawker Hunter : Start of 36 hunters
March 24, 1982	"U TAUTO"	Münsingen	N6	Flpl Rgt 2	Meiringen military airfield - Hawker Hunter , F-5 Tiger II , Interlaken airfield - Hawker Hunter
Oct 15, 1985	"U TAUTO"	Flums	N3	Flpl Dept. 8	Ambrì - Hawker Hunter , Alpnach Air Base - F-5 Tiger II : 9, Mollis Air Base - Hawker Hunter : 11
29 Sep 1988	"U TUTTI"	Alpnach	N8	Flpl Dept. 9	Alpnach Military Airfield - F-5 Tiger II : Take-off of 12 Tigers from the motorway
Nov 16, 1988	"U NOSTASIO"	Sion	N9	Flpl Dept. 4	Sion Airport - F-5 Tiger II : Launch of 8 Tigers
Nov 14, 1991	"U STRADA"	Lodrino	N2	Flpl Dept. 8	Ambrì - Hawker Hunter , Alpnach - F-5 Tiger II : 9, Mollis - Hawker Hunter 11

The following national road sections have never been tested:

Stans A2, short haul for emergency start of Dassault Mirage III with JATO .
Payerne A1, last section built - theoretically still operational

With the end of the Cold War and the restructuring of the Swiss Army, objects are continuously being released from the inventory of the military infrastructure, including various national highways. With the army reform in 1995, the concept of airfields on national roads was temporarily abandoned. At the moment there is no more maintenance and no further use is being tested. However, the Swiss Air Force still considers the ability to decentralize to be necessary. This still includes operations from civil airfields, former military airfields and sections of motorway.

The Sonnenberg tunnel on the N2 near Lucerne is another abandoned dual use of national highways . This was designed as the largest civil protection bunker in Switzerland and one of the largest in the world and subjected to annual functional tests until its capacity as a civil defense system was greatly reduced in 2005 due to increasing maintenance costs. It used to have space for 17,000 people, today it has a capacity of 2,000 people.

Finally, the Gotthard tunnel of the N2 was also released from the inventory of strategic buildings. After the serious fire accident in 2001 and the resulting inevitable total renovation of the section, the time of the closure was used to remove the explosives installed during construction from a side chamber inside the tunnel.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ NZZ, June 6, 1957, sheet 6, evening edition No. 1655 (page B1)
^ Admin.ch: Program to remove bottlenecks on the national road network , from December 19, 2008
↑ www.20minuten.ch, 20 minutes, 20 minutes, www.20min.ch: The motorway vignette will soon cost CHF 100 . In: 20 minutes . ( 20min.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).
^ Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication DETEC: Vote on the motorway vignette . ( admin.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).
↑ Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication DETEC: Voting on the creation of a fund for national highways and urban traffic (NAF) . ( admin.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).
↑ ^a ^b Federal Roads Office FEDRO: routes by which the national road network is being expanded . ( admin.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).
^ Federal Roads Office FEDRO: The new national highways
↑ Federal Roads Office FEDRO: New roads requiring a vignette . ( admin.ch [accessed on December 2, 2019]).
↑ Cold War - The first motorway runway tested. (No longer available online.) Swiss Air Force , November 28, 2011, archived from the original on November 11, 2014 ; accessed on November 17, 2018 .
↑ Swiss Air Force, annual publication 2019, page 16

[1] NZZ, June 6, 1957, sheet 6, evening edition No. 1655 (page B1)

[2] Admin.ch: Program to remove bottlenecks on the national road network , from December 19, 2008

[3] www.20minuten.ch, 20 minutes, 20 minutes, www.20min.ch: The motorway vignette will soon cost CHF 100 . In: 20 minutes . ( 20min.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).

[4] Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication DETEC: Vote on the motorway vignette . ( admin.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).

[5] Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication DETEC: Voting on the creation of a fund for national highways and urban traffic (NAF) . ( admin.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).

[ASTRA-6] Federal Roads Office FEDRO: routes by which the national road network is being expanded . ( admin.ch [accessed on November 28, 2018]).

[7] Federal Roads Office FEDRO: The new national highways

[8] Federal Roads Office FEDRO: New roads requiring a vignette . ( admin.ch [accessed on December 2, 2019]).

[9] Cold War - The first motorway runway tested. (No longer available online.) Swiss Air Force , November 28, 2011, archived from the original on November 11, 2014 ; accessed on November 17, 2018 .

[10] Swiss Air Force, annual publication 2019, page 16