Construction - Wissing: A1 uses environmental concerns as a pretext
In the opinion of Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing, the ongoing stagnation in the construction of the Autobahn 1 through the Eifel region shows the need for accelerated planning. There are cases in which environmental concerns are used as an excuse to prevent infrastructure measures in general, the FDP politician told the German Press Agency in an editorial interview in Mainz. "We are now experiencing this again with the A1."
Wissing emphasized that it is absolutely clear that the expansion of infrastructure must be carried out in harmony with nature and the environment or that interventions must at least be justifiable. However, if an assessment has taken place and it has been decided that an expansion is justifiable, it must also be possible for a company to give priority to the expansion of infrastructure.
In the case of the A1, the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz (BUND) recently filed a lawsuit against the expansion through the Eifel. Autobahn 1 runs from the Baltic Sea coast in Schleswig-Holstein via Hamburg, Bremen, Münster, Wuppertal and Cologne through the Eifel to Saarbrücken and is one of the longest highways in Germany - albeit with interruptions.
It currently ends in the north near Blankenheim in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the south near Kelberg. Closing the approximately 25-kilometer gap has been a topic of discussion for many years. A planning approval decision was issued in the summer for the section between Adenau in the Ahrweiler district and Kelberg in the Vulkaneifel district, and BUND had already announced its opposition at the time.
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Source: www.stern.de
