Schulhausplatz (Baden)

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Aerial view in November 2015

The Schulhausplatz is an important traffic junction in Baden in the canton of Aargau . It is the intersection of four important main roads and is one of the busiest places in Switzerland . It is named after the district building on its south side, built in 1856/57 , which was originally used as a school building.

description

The Schulhausplatz is south of the old town, between the Schlossberg and the Limmat . From here, roads lead in four directions: east over the high bridge to Wettingen , north through the Schlossberg tunnel towards Brugg , west on Mellingerstrasse to the Baden-West junction of Autobahn 1 in Dättwil and south on Neuenhoferstrasse to the Baden- East near Neuenhof . In addition, two side streets flow in the immediate vicinity: Zürcherstrasse in the south-west and Weite Gasse through Baden's old town in the north-east.

The Schulhausplatz is an important junction not only for individual traffic , but also for local public transport . In 2017, eight PostBus lines and six RVBW lines will cross the square. With an average of 47,000 motor vehicles and 1,460 buses a day, the Schulhausplatz is one of the busiest crossroads in Switzerland. So that the busy bus traffic is not obstructed, the buses drive in a north-south direction through a tunnel under the square.

history

The Schulhausplatz in the mid-1930s
Construction work in December 2015

Up until the 20th century, what would later become the Schulhausplatz was not an actual intersection, but a continuation of the Weite Gasse, which branched off into the main streets to Mellingen and Neuenhof in the area of ​​the urban schoolhouse just south of the former city wall . Since 1847 there was a level crossing on the Zurich – Baden railway line , which crossed the Schlossberg in the 80-meter-long Schlossberg tunnel a little north of it . The passage was secured by barriers. In 1926 the high bridge was opened over the Limmat , which spanned the entire valley. The road coming from Wettingen now led to the school building, which gave the area a space-like character.

Although most of the road users were cyclists in the first few years , the city authorities soon realized that the school building square would develop into a neuralgic point. Not only the level crossing posed a problem, but also the passage through the Weite Gasse. In 1929 the city ​​council announced a competition to disentangle through traffic . However, it was just as unsuccessful as a project by the cantonal building authorities in 1942. In 1948, an average of 3,700 motor vehicles and 13,000 bicycles per day were counted in Weiten Gasse, only five years later the number was 8,500 or 16 ' 000 increased. In addition, 230 trains a day ensured that the barriers were closed for more than five hours. It was not uncommon for backlogs of up to three kilometers to occur on Mellingerstrasse. In the vernacular, the square was jokingly referred to as “Piazza Insalata” because of its confusion.

A commission set up by the city council, which also included the transport planner Kurt Leibbrand , presented a report to the community in 1953 . While the “major railway relocation”, which envisaged a complete underground railway line and a new train station inside the Schlossberg, failed because of the costs that were perceived as too high, the “minor railway relocation” was approved by the municipal assembly . By building the Kreuzliberg tunnel for the railroad and the reconstruction of the Schlossberg tunnel for later use by road traffic, the traffic flows were to be unbundled. After the approval of the 25.7 million francs project by the Grand Council of the Canton of Aargau in 1955, implementation began in October 1957. At Cordulaplatz, which borders the Schulhausplatz to the northeast, an entire row of houses had to be demolished. As a replacement, new buildings were built, which are volumetrically adapted to the old town. The Kreuzliberg tunnel was opened on October 1, 1961 after a four-year construction period, which meant that the railway line across the Schulhausplatz could be removed. Finally, at the end of October 1965, the renovation work in the Schlossberg tunnel was also completed. Now motorized individual traffic clearly dominated the square, while pedestrians and cyclists had to make do with underpasses.

In the following four decades, the number of motor vehicles driving across the square quadrupled. While bicycle traffic fell sharply, public bus traffic experienced a significant increase through the introduction of several new lines and increased timetables. Buses got stuck in traffic jams , especially during rush hour , with negative effects on punctuality. For this reason, the city and canton planned a comprehensive new construction of the school building site and the renovation of the Schlossberg tunnel. The city of Baden is paying 47.3 million of the costs of 94.7 million francs (for both projects together). In a local referendum on November 27, 2011, the project was accepted with a yes share of 59.7%. Two weeks later, the Aargau government council approved the cantonal contribution.

The project, the implementation of which began in July 2015, provides for several measures. The acceleration of bus traffic is of central importance, as buses coming from Baden train station no longer have to cross lanes with oncoming traffic. To do this, they do not cross the Schlossberg in the actual Schlossberg tunnel, but in the “tunnel garage” below, where a ramp and a bus tunnel branch off. The buses take the ramp to Mellingerstrasse without crossing. The bus tunnel crosses under the Schulhausplatz in a wide arc and reaches the surface again in front of the high bridge. The aim is to save up to ten minutes in time. In addition, the entire traffic area of ​​the square will be renovated, the traffic lights modernized, the adjacent Cordulaplatz upgraded and the underground pedestrian and cyclist passages made more attractive. In spring 2018, the intersection was fully operational again, on August 18, 2018, the school building square with the underground shopping arcade was inaugurated in the presence of political representatives. Due to delays in the construction of the northern approaches, the bus tunnel went into operation on April 29, 2019, initially for Postbuses. The RVBW buses started using the tunnel from May 23, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Schulhausplatz  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baden region network map. (PDF, 173 kB) (No longer available online.) Tarifverbund A-Welle , 2017, archived from the original on March 30, 2017 ; Retrieved April 1, 2017 . 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.a-welle.ch
  2. ↑ Stadtblatt Herbst 2015 (PDF, 748 kB) City of Baden, 2015, accessed on April 1, 2017 .
  3. ^ A b Fabian Furter, Bruno Meier , Andrea Schaer, Ruth Wiederkehr: Stadtgeschichte Baden . here + now , Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-03919-341-7 , p. 282 .
  4. ↑ a b Start of construction at the Baden school building. (PDF, 2.5 MB) In: Mobility. Construction, Transport and Environment Department of the Canton of Aargau, June 2015, accessed on April 1, 2017 .
  5. ^ Furter: City history of Baden. P. 288.
  6. ↑ Baden clearly say yes to the redesign of the school building square. Aargauer Zeitung , November 27, 2011, accessed on April 1, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Aargau government approves major projects in Baden and Koblenz. Aargauer Zeitung , December 9, 2011, accessed April 1, 2017 .
  8. ↑ The Schulhausplatz intersection is officially opened. Aargauer Zeitung , August 18, 2018, accessed on August 8, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Martin Rupf: The first bus drove through the Schulhausplatz tunnel - we were on board. Badener Tagblatt, May 1, 2019, accessed on November 22, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Commissioning of the Baden bus tunnel. Badener Tagblatt, May 2019, accessed on November 22, 2019 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 28 ′ 17.8 "  N , 8 ° 18 ′ 23"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred sixty-five thousand four hundred seventeen  /  258,233