Traffic: Wissing wants to speed up motorway construction

Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) wants to speed up the construction of certain motorway projects in Germany. The federal states should inform the federal government by April 28 whether they agree to the statutory codification of a project to eliminate bottlenecks. This emerges from a letter from Wissing that was available to the German Press Agency. The plans caused sharp criticism among countries.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s Transport Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens) told the dpa: “The Federal Minister’s actions surprised me.” Wissing’s plans were not even presented at the transport ministers’ conference in Aachen last month. Krischer is chairman of the committee: “And then within eight days all German state governments should just agree to a list that Mr. Wissing just came up with.” Neither is the concrete planning status of the federal projects in NRW known, nor what exactly Wissing wants to change in the planning of individual projects. “No serious decision can be made on this basis,” Krischer stated.

The traffic light coalition had agreed at the end of March that there should be an acceleration for motorway projects that are traffic jams and bottlenecks. That’s a total of 145, but they also include sections of a project. They are mainly in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.

The goal: fewer traffic jams and smoother traffic

According to the Ministry of Transport, a total of 988 kilometers of new roads are to be built, which corresponds to 7.5 percent of the existing network. The goal: fewer traffic jams and smoother traffic.

However, the establishment of an outstanding public interest should be done in agreement with the country concerned, as stated in a decision paper by the coalition committee. With the stipulation of an “overriding public interest”, planning times for traffic routes are to be significantly reduced.

In order to explain the background and clarify any questions, according to Wissing’s letter, there should be a “technical discussion” with representatives of the federal states in the Federal Ministry this week at working level.

If a country agrees, projects are to be included in an approval acceleration law planned by Wissing, as the letter shows. The draft law should be dealt with quickly in the Federal Cabinet.

Krischer said that NRW will now wait for the technical discussion. He also criticized: “The motorway bridges are crumbling under our tires. After all, what’s the use of a ten-lane motorway if it ends in front of a bridge that is closed due to dilapidation? Here I have the impression that the Federal Minister of Transport is setting the wrong priorities.”

After the coalition committee, Green Co-Chairman Ricarda Lang said it was “very likely” that not all of the motorway projects would ultimately be built at an accelerated rate. Planning will only be accelerated if the responsible countries want it. The Greens are involved in many state governments and could block projects.

Wissler: “A climate policy ghost driver”

The Greens had rejected faster motorway construction before the coalition committee. Jens Hilgenberg, head of transport policy at BUND, told the dpa: “The state governments must refuse Mr. Wissing’s concrete fantasies and are not allowed to register any projects.” Otherwise they are guilty of “aiding in the large-scale destruction of nature and the climate”. The construction of all 145 projects would destroy more than 80 ecologically valuable nature reserves.

The Linke chairwoman Janine Wissler criticized that instead of expanding the railroad, speed should be set in the construction of the motorway. “Against the background of the worsening climate crisis and increasing emissions in the transport sector, this is complete madness. Volker Wissing is a climate policy wrong-way driver.”