Rheintal / Walgau motorway
| A14 motorway in Austria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rheintal / Walgau motorway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| map | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Basic data | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operator: |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall length: | 61 km | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
State : |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Requirement for use: | tolls for cars and motorbikes between Hohenems and Bludenz, toll-free between Hörbranz and Hohenems generally tolls for trucks |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weidach junction on the A14 near Bregenz with Pfänder and city tunnels (south portals) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Course of the road
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Rheintal / Walgau Autobahn A14 is a motorway in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg .
It begins directly after the German federal motorway 96 at the German-Austrian border near Hörbranz , leads through the Pfänder tunnel past Bregenz into the Rhine Valley , through the Ambergtunnel past Feldkirch into the Walgau and turns into the Arlberg expressway (S16) at Bludenz .
Until 2006 the official name of the A14 was only Rheintal Autobahn . In Vorarlberg, however, the Rheintal Autobahn was often only understood to mean the part of the A14 actually located in the Rhine Valley (the Hörbranz – Feldkirch route), while the part in Walgau (Feldkirch – Bludenz) was unofficially referred to as the Walgau Autobahn .
history
Prehistory and planning
As early as the mid-1930s, traffic planners recognized that the rapidly increasing motorized traffic would not be manageable with the roads that had existed to date. A first study was commissioned before the era of National Socialism and was entitled HaFraBa (Autostraße Hansestädte - Frankfurt - Basel ).
After Austria was annexed to the German Reich , another motorway study was commissioned in 1939, which envisaged a connection from Wangen im Allgäu to Feldkirch . Only the cities of Lindau (Lake Constance) , Bregenz , Dornbirn and Feldkirch should have connections. An alpine road should lead over the Pfänder to Scheidegg to the Queralpenstraße. However, these plans were discarded when the war began in 1939.
In occupied post-war Austria, motorization was at its lowest level. It was not until 1952 that construction supervisor Netzer developed a study that provided for the expansion of federal highway 1 with bypasses. At that time, a congestion of the federal roads could only be foreseen in the through-town roads. The first large-scale traffic census in 1955 and a traffic forecast based on it showed that an expansion of the federal highway alone would not have the desired effect in Vorarlberg either. In a memorandum from 1956, a motorway from Unterhochsteg to Feldkirch and from Lauterach (Vorarlberg) to the Swiss border is mentioned. The planning for this was started immediately, as there was a need, especially in the Bregenz area.
Final planning and construction
On October 29, 1965 the ground-breaking ceremony took place for the construction of the first section of the Rheintal Autobahn from Dornbirn Nord to Götzis street houses. The rock material obtained through the Udelberg cut was mainly used for this construction phase. The geological subsoil of this construction section, especially near Dornbirn-Nord, is still unstable today and requires constant adjustments and improvements. This section of the motorway was opened to traffic on December 17, 1971.
It was not until 1973, after several years of preparation and uncertainty, that the planning of the Pfänder Tunnel, another important section of the new motorway, began. Just one year later, the alignment tunnel was put out to tender and opened on December 4, 1975. The full excavation of the tunnel began in autumn 1976. At the same time, access roads from the state border and up to the Dornbirn-Nord junction were built. The new tunnel was ceremoniously put into operation on December 10, 1980, but at that time it was still not connected to the city of Bregenz. In the years that followed, the expansion of this motorway to Feldkirch was pushed ahead rapidly, after tough struggle the Ambergtunnel was opened to Frastanz on July 16, 1985 , which opened the way to Walgau . In the meantime, on June 5, 1981, the section of the motorway in Walgau was released, which now linked to the section in the Rhine Valley. With the Arlberg Schnellstraße (S 16) there was a direct road connection from the German border at Hörbranz to the neighboring state of Tyrol , but only two lanes with oncoming traffic in the area of the two large tunnels.
Adaptation to traffic conditions
As a result of the massive increase in traffic in the 1980s and 1990s, planning for the second tube of the Ambergtunnel began before the turn of the millennium and was opened to traffic in December 2003. In the summer of 2004, the tube, which had existed since 1985, was finally completely renovated and adapted to the facility operations.
The planning for a second Pfänder tunnel tube could only begin with a change in the traffic concept of the state of Vorarlberg in 2001. Up to this point it was planned to prevent the expansion in order to maintain the gatekeeping function for traffic. However, since this gatekeeper function did not occur and the traffic load in the secondary road network due to traffic jam avoidance traffic in Bregenz and the surrounding area became higher and higher, this concept was finally changed and planning started. Construction of the second tube began in April 2006 and was completed in June 2012. Then the old tube was completely renovated. Full operation of both tubes in one-way traffic began on July 3, 2013.
A new junction "Rheintal Mitte" is currently under construction in Dornbirn. In the area of the current underpass of the L 45 Schmitternstraße under the Rheintal / Walgau motorway, a new motorway connection is to be created, which, in conjunction with the expansion of the L 45, is to connect in particular the operating areas in the south of Dornbirn to the highest-quality road network. The completion of the new motorway connection is planned for 2022.
The semi-connection point Wolfurt - Lauterach is to be expanded to a full connection with the conversion of the Wolfurt freight station in order to counteract the steadily growing truck traffic in the municipalities of Lauterach and Wolfurt.
Rest stops
On the Rheintalautobahn there is a rest stop at Lake Constance right at the border crossing into Germany and another rest stop at Hohenems . Other rest stops are only back on the Arlberg expressway (S16).
State of development
There are at least two lanes of traffic on the motorway in each direction. In the area between the Wolfurt exit and the Weidach junction near Bregenz, the motorway has three lanes in each direction.
literature
- DI Herbert Gehrer: The expansion of Vorarlberg's roads for motorized traffic from the 1930s to 1983. Office of the Vorarlberg State Government, Bregenz 1986.
Web links
- Official announcement of the course of the A14 in BGBl. II No. 261/2004.
- Rheintal / Walgau Autobahn on motorways-exitlists.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Vorarlberger Nachrichten of October 29, 1965.
- ^ Vorarlberger Nachrichten of December 17, 1971 and of December 7/8. June 2014, A6 - settlement of three to four meters was expected in this area. However, subsidence of up to twelve meters was actually found. The asphalt layer has in some cases already reached a thickness of over 60 cm due to the rework. the heaps of load are up to twelve meters thick.
- ^ Vorarlberger Nachrichten of December 17, 1971.
- ↑ ASFINAG Bau Management GmbH: A14 Rheintal Autobahn: Pfänder Tunnel 2nd tube ( memento from June 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). ASFINAG project page on tunnel expansion.
- ↑ State of Vorarlberg, Road Construction Department: Rheintal Mitte / L 45 ( Memento from October 26, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Planning page of the State Road Construction Office .
- ↑ Preparatory work for the new A14 connection started. In: Vorarlberg Online (VOL.at). January 16, 2020, accessed January 16, 2020 .
