Tauern Autobahn

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / Maintenance / AT-A
	A10 motorway in Austria
	Tauern Autobahn
	map
	Basic data
Operator:
Overall length:	approx. 194 km (including feeder)
State :	Salzburg; Carinthia;
	State of Salzburg
	State of Carinthia
	State of Carinthia
	Under construction; In planning; Section Control ; Traffic control system ;

The Tauern Autobahn A 10 is an important north-south axis in Austria . It runs from the Salzburg junction on the West Autobahn (A 1) over the Tauern to the Villach junction with the South Autobahn (A 2), where it joins the Karawanken Autobahn (A 11). The Tauern Autobahn, along with the Inntal Autobahn - Brenner Autobahn (A 12 / A 13) and Pyhrn Autobahn (A 9), forms one of the three most important north-south axes and Alpine transit routes in Austria. The European route 55 (Denmark - Greece) runs over the entire stretch of the A 10 , as well as the west-east Alpine transit axis E 66 (South Tyrol - Southeast Hungary) in the southern section .

The length is about 194 km, of which 24 km are led in fourteen tunnels . The best known are the Tauern tunnel and the Katschberg tunnel .

Today the Tauern Autobahn is one of the most important north-south connections across the Alps , which regularly leads to traffic jams on the busy travel weekends in summer. In June 2011 the second tube of the Tauern tunnel was opened, which means that after a waiting period of 40 years, the entire length of the motorway is four lanes.

course

The A 10 begins west of the city of Salzburg , east of the former Walserberg border station , where it branches off from the West Autobahn (A 1) at the Salzburg junction. It then runs south through the Flachgau and the Tennengau near Hallein . At Pass Lueg it overcomes a first valley pass, between the Hagengebirge and Tennengebirge , with two tunnels ( Ofenauertunnel , Hieflertunnel ). At the Pongau junction , near Bischofshofen , the Pinzgauer Straße (B 311) branches off to the west towards Zell am See and Tyrol .

It then swings eastward into the Fritztal and at Eben im Pongau back south. In the Altenmarkt / Radstadt area , the Ennstal Straße (B 320) branches off towards the east to Schladming or to the Pyhrn motorway (A 9).

Through the Flachau valley , the Tauern Autobahn leads south again up to the now two-tube, 6.4 km long Tauern Tunnel , which leads under the Radstädter Tauern through to the Lungau near St. Michael and, at 1340 m (south portal), represents the apex of the Tauern Autobahn . This is followed by the 5.9 km long Katschberg tunnel ; this is the state border between Salzburg and Carinthia . The section around the Tauern and Katschberg tunnels is a special toll route.

Passing east of the Malta Valley, the A 10 reaches the Spittal / Millstätter See junction , where a motorway feeder leads in the direction of Millstätter See (east) or the Drautal Straße (B 100) in the direction of East and South Tyrol (west). From the B 100, the Europastraße 66 leads to the A 10 in the direction of Villach.

Down through the Drautal , in a south-easterly direction, it leads into the Villach-Land district . The Tauern Autobahn bypasses the city of Villach as part of the 4.3 km long Oswaldibergtunnel and ends at the exit of the Unterdrautal, east of the city of Villach at the Villach junction with the Süd Autobahn (A 2) and joins the Karawanken Autobahn (A 11).

bridges

The Kremsbrücke valley crossing is almost 90 meters high and one kilometer long.

Kremsbrücke slope bridge with a length of 2600 m
Gummerner bridge over the Drautal Straße between Villach and Weißenbach
Weißenbach valley crossing

business

Special toll

Toll information ( St. Michael / Lungau , prices from 2005)

In the area of the Tauern and Katschberg tunnels, the route is a special toll route . In this area, there is no vignette requirement for vehicles up to 3.5 tons , instead of which a route toll has to be paid. The toll can either be paid in cash, by credit card , fuel card or Maestro card (ATM card) at the toll station. Alternatively, the toll can also be paid in advance using the video toll system. Frequent drivers also have the option of purchasing an annual pass. There is no toll for local commuters.

There is only no need for a vignette between the junctions on the special toll route . Driving on other sections of the Tauern Autobahn without a vignette is a criminal offense. Currently (as of 2019) a trip through the Tauern and Katschberg tunnels costs 12.00 euros for a car. If you take the motorway at the St. Michael i. Leaving Lungau or driving onto it, each pays half the amount, i.e. 6 euros.

Vehicles over 3.5 tons pay the toll via the GO-Box of the Austrian truck toll system.

Speed limits

The first section in the Salzburg area is subject to the Immission Control Act - Air (IG-L) and is consistently limited to 100 km / h. The following section in the greater part of the state of Salzburg is limited to 110 km / h at night for noise protection reasons.

history

Building history

Tauern motorway bridge after the 1975 accident

The exact route of the Tauern Autobahn was laid down between 1938 and 1942 and essentially replaces Katschberg Strasse , which in turn is roughly based on the Roman road Virunum - Iuvavum . With the groundbreaking on May 15, 1939, construction work began near Salzburg and Spittal an der Drau , the Wolfsberg Tunnel near Spittal began and numerous access roads were built. In 1942, construction ceased due to the Second World War .

Due to the increasing tourism , the detailed planning started again in 1958. Existing structures were used, but due to new technologies in tunnel and road construction, the route is no longer exactly identical to the original plan, for example the Katschberg tunnel was relocated.

In 1968 the route was officially added to the list of motorways. The Tauernautobahn Aktiengesellschaft (TAAG) was founded to finance construction.

The construction of the most difficult section, the apex stretch over the Niedere Tauern and Katschberg , began on January 28, 1971: Here the Eastern Alps were overcome with the 6.4 km long Tauern tunnel and a 5.4 km long tunnel through the Katschberg. In 1974 the entire northern part including the Katschberg tunnel was opened to traffic. The Salzburg section up to the Ennstal brought a first relief for the guest worker route (the former European route 5), the main transit route for guest worker holiday traffic to the Balkan countries and on to Greece and Turkey, which had become a problem from 1969.

On May 16, 1975, part of the Tauern motorway bridge that was under construction over the Liesertal broke off south of Gmünd . At 3:30 a.m., the 280-ton formwork carriage and eleven workers fell about 50 meters into the Lieser . One worker survived the accident seriously injured, the other ten could only be recovered dead.

The southern ramp was opened on June 28, 1980. For this part, 12 kilometers of motorway were built on a total of 254 pillars up to 83.7 m high; At the time, the longest slope bridge in Europe was built on the Pressingberg at 2.6 km. The 146.5 km route from Salzburg to Spittal was thus completed; from 1983 the autobahn through the Drautal was extended to Villach .

Chronology of the openings

Course of the A10 in the lower Drautal between Spittal / Drau and Villach.

The opening dates of the construction lots:

September 13, 1941: Junction Salzburg - ASt Salzburg Süd (7.542 km)

July 15, 1959: ASt Salzburg Süd - Niederalm (1,100 km)

June 29, 1968: ASt Hallein - HASt Kuchl (5.854 km)

June 4th 1970: Niederalm - ASt Hallein (6.724 km)

July 28, 1972: HASt Kuchl - Ast Golling (5.885 km)

June 30, 1973: Spittal / Millstättersee junction - ASt Spittal / Drau Ost (7.300 km)

June 30, 1973: Spittal / Millstättersee - Lendorf junction (4.185 km)

October 10, 1974: ASt Golling - ASt Pass Lueg (6.141 km, Ofenauer / Hieflertunnel)

December 21, 1974: ASt Michael / Lungau - ASt Rennweg (8.860 km, Katschberg tunnel)

June 21, 1975: ASt Eben / Pongau - ASt St.Michael / Lungau (44.071 km, Tauern tunnel)

July 2, 1976: Lieserhofen - Spittal / Millstättersee junction (1,940 km)

July 2, 1976: ASt Gmünd-Maltatal - Spittal / Millstättersee junction (9.638 km)

October 25, 1977: ASt Pass Lueg - HASt Werfen (8.747 km, Brentenberg / Zetzenberg / Helbersberg tunnel)

June 8, 1978: Villach Ost - Villach junction (0.600 km)

July 27, 1978: ASt Rennweg - Rauchenkatsch (right RFB; 4,400 km)

August 31, 1978: ASt Rennweg - Rauchenkatsch (left RFB; 4,400 km)

June 30, 1979: HASt Werfen - Pongau junction (right RFB; 5,000 km)

June 30, 1979: Pongau junction - ASt Eben / Pongau (12.467 km)

October 25, 1979: HASt Werfen - Pongau junction (left RFB; 5,000 km)

June 27, 1980: Rauchenkatsch - ASt Gmünd - Maltatal (12.534 km)

1986: Pongau - Bischofshofen junction (3,680 km)

3 July 1986: ASt Spittal / Drau Ost - ASt Villach West (26.195 km)

June 28, 1988: ASt Villach West - Villach junction (9.864 km)

Traffic jams and tunnel expansion

Tauern tunnel south portal before expansion

Since the Tauern Autobahn is the main axis from Germany to Italy ( Adriatic Sea ), at the beginning and end of the holiday and on busy days of travel there are regular traffic jams for kilometers and therefore hours of waiting in front of the Tauern tunnel or the Katschberg tunnel . Block handling is activated regularly in order to increase the flow of traffic .

The longest traffic jam in front of the Tauern tunnel, at 40 kilometers, occurred on August 2, 2008, heading south. From midnight the traffic was cleared in blocks - the journey time was up to six hours.

As of 2005, both tunnels were equipped with a second tube and after its completion the old tube was renovated and traffic was routed through the new tube. The Katschberg tunnel has been open with two tubes since April 30, 2009, the Tauern tunnel since June 30, 2011. The total costs for the expansion of both tunnels amount to 324 million euros .

On July 30, 2011 there was a 60-kilometer traffic jam in front of the Oswaldibergtunnel , the northern bypass of Villach : After the completion of the second tube of the Tauern tunnel and the end of block processing, many more cars are now coming to the south in a shorter time. The Villach junction with only one lane towards Italy or Slovenia was unable to cope with the large volume of traffic.

In order to prevent feared bypass traffic in the event of traffic jams, the state of Salzburg followed the state of Tyrol in 2019 and blocked the departures for through traffic between Puch and St. Michael im Lungau in both directions during the holiday weekends.

Enclosures

In the course of the second tube of the Tauern tunnel, work is being carried out on an enclosure in the Zederhaus area : This place is located in a narrow valley and is extremely polluted by the high volume of traffic: The motorway passes the elongated localities at the height of the houses a few dozen meters away, one situation which could not be solved satisfactorily even with noise barriers. Due to the even higher volume of traffic expected from the expansion of the Tauern tunnel, the construction of an enclosure was agreed with the municipality.

160 km / h

From May 2 to June 30, 2006, a maximum speed of 160 km / h was permitted on the Tauern Autobahn between Spittal an der Drau and Paternion . This was monitored by Section Control . 160 km / h was only released on the day from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. under optimal conditions. If the conditions were not optimal, a lower maximum speed was indicated. In very bad conditions, the speed was reduced to up to 80 km / h. During the night between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., there was a 110 km / h limit. On November 6, 2006, a new two-month test started to test Tempo 160 even in the cold season.

This route was called the “160 test route”, where they wanted to find out whether it was appropriate to allow speeds higher than 130 km / h. The project was mainly driven by the then Transport Minister Hubert Gorbach , who expected more safety and fewer accidents from the flexibility of the speeds up and down. In addition, by releasing the speed upwards, the acceptance of the car drivers for lower limits should increase. Hubert Gorbach received massive criticism from the opposition for his project. But since he believed a silent majority behind him, Gorbach stuck to his plans. The transport minister also received criticism from the ranks of the government, for example from the then environment minister Josef Pröll or the then Carinthian transport advisor Gerhard Dörfler , who later spoke out in favor of the test.

Hubert Gorbach's successor as Minister of Transport, Werner Faymann , did not pursue the topic of "Tempo 160" any further.

Bigger locks and accidents

On September 30, 1988 at around 4.35 a.m., a tanker rammed an unlit caravan near the Kroislerwandtunnel in the direction of Salzburg. Five Italians between the ages of 19 and 23 were killed and an 18-year-old survived seriously injured. The 22-year-old truck driver, the cause of an accident nodding stated, was unhurt.

In May 1999 there was an accident and a major fire in the Tauern tunnel , in which twelve people were killed - before that in March of the same year there had been a similarly devastating fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel. A month-long lock impaired traffic, the result was u. a. a very extensive diversion for trucks. On the occasion of the accident, the construction of a second tunnel tube was tackled and the safety standards revised - after its opening, the Tauern tunnel was one of the safest tunnels in Europe.

On November 2, 2004, shortly before 4 a.m., a Croatian driver of a car came off the lane at the Salzburg motorway junction and crashed into a tree. While the driver was able to free himself seriously injured, his two passengers burned in the wreck. At around 4.45 a.m. there was another accident in the backwater area when a Hungarian articulated lorry hit a Turkish articulated lorry standing in front of it. The two occupants of the Hungarian heavy vehicle were killed and the Turkish driver was injured.

In October 2006, the Alterberg Bridge between Spittal and Gmünd was severely deformed after a heavy goods vehicle had crossed it, whereupon the motorway on this section of the route was closed for several weeks.

After the floods in Central Europe in 2013 , the Tauern Autobahn was closed due to a landslide .

literature

Tauernautobahn AG. (Ed.): Tauern motorway apex stretch. Construction documentation up to the handover on June 21, 1975 . 2 vol., Salzburg 1976 and 3rd vol., Salzburg 1982.
Autobahn and Schnellstraßen-Finanz-Aktiengesellschaft (Hrsg.): The autobahn network in Austria. 30 years of Asfinag . Self-published, Vienna / Absam January 2012, Chapter A 10 Tauern Autobahn , p. 84-87 ( pdf , asfinag.at).

Web links

Commons : Tauern Autobahn A10 - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ A 10: Spectacular bridge renovation at a height of 90 meters ( memento from May 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , Asfinag, accessed on May 17, 2012
↑ Special and video tolls, asfinag.at (current tariffs)
^ Lit. The motorway network in Austria . 2012, table, p. 84 .
↑ Record: 40 kilometers of traffic jam in front of the Tauern tunnel
↑ Carinthia instead of the Tauern tunnel: the mega-jam continues 20 kilometers , orf.at
↑ Land blocks motorway exits on A10 on ORF from July 10, 2019, accessed on July 10, 2019.
↑ Tank truck rammed a mobile home: Five dead , berufer-zeitung.at
↑ Four deaths in a serious traffic accident on the Tauern Autobahn , derstandard.at
↑ Flood: A 8 flooded and the branch lines too , augsburger-allgemeine.de

[1] A 10: Spectacular bridge renovation at a height of 90 meters ( memento from May 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , Asfinag, accessed on May 17, 2012

[sondermaut-2] Special and video tolls, asfinag.at (current tariffs)

[3] Lit. The motorway network in Austria . 2012, table, p. 84 .

[4] Record: 40 kilometers of traffic jam in front of the Tauern tunnel

[5] Carinthia instead of the Tauern tunnel: the mega-jam continues 20 kilometers , orf.at

[6] Land blocks motorway exits on A10 on ORF from July 10, 2019, accessed on July 10, 2019.

[7] Tank truck rammed a mobile home: Five dead , berufer-zeitung.at

[8] Four deaths in a serious traffic accident on the Tauern Autobahn , derstandard.at

[9] Flood: A 8 flooded and the branch lines too , augsburger-allgemeine.de


Highways	A 1 West Motorway • A 2 South Motorway • A 3 Southeast Motorway • A 4 East Motorway • A 5 North / Weinviertel Motorway • A 6 Northeast Motorway • A 7 Mühlkreis Motorway • A 8 Innkreis Motorway • A 9 Pyhrn Motorway • A 10 Tauern Motorway • A 11 Karawanken motorway • A 12 Inntal motorway • A 13 Brenner motorway • A 14 Rheintal / Walgau motorway • A 21 Vienna outer ring motorway • A 22 Danube bank motorway • A 23 motorway Südosttangente Vienna • A 25 Wels motorway • A 26 Linz motorway
Expressways	S 1 Wiener Außenring Schnellstraße • S 2 Wiener Nordrand Schnellstraße • S 3 Weinviertel Schnellstraße • S 4 Mattersburger Schnellstraße • S 5 Stockerauer Schnellstraße • S 6 Semmering Schnellstraße • S 7 Fürstenfelder Schnellstraße • S 8 Marchfeld Schnellstraße • S 10 Mühlviertler Schnellstraße • S 16 Arlberg Expressway • S 18 Bodensee expressway • S 31 Burgenland expressway • S 33 Kremser expressway • S 34 Traisental expressway • S 35 Brucker expressway • S 36 Murtal expressway • S 37 Klagenfurt expressway