Twelve years ago, Horst Seehofer spoke a word of power that still reverberates today – and over which many would prefer to hang the cloak of silence. At that time, the Bavarian Prime Minister stopped the ring closure project for the A 99 in the south of the state capital. What many – especially the opponents of the project in the Isar valley, but also environmentalists – may still seem like a final deathblow for the southern ring, was a mistake that needs to be corrected in the present. The city of Munich and the district of Munich urgently need a closed ring road in order not to succumb to the gridlock.
At the time, Seehofer opposed a feasibility study, the result of which came down to two words: the southern ring is both “reasonable” and “feasible”. This still applies today. This makes sense, because the eastern bypass of the A 99, which heavy goods traffic has to use, has reached its capacity limit despite the ongoing eight-lane expansion – which, by the way, is inevitably right. And realizable because there is a solution that can be used to protect the environment, animals and people alike: an underground route. The plans for this are in the drawers, and all the ecological aspects cited by critics of the project have been taken into account. There are several routes with which serious interference with nature can be avoided – and the Isaridyll can retain its own character as the green lung of Munich’s south.
What made Prime Minister Seehofer turn away from the ring closure, apart from purely populist reasons, were the projected costs. And yes, an underground South Ring would be a ridiculously expensive proposition to say the least. However, the benefits of a closed motorway ring can be enormous for decades to come. Not only for the people in the northern district of Munich, who are already drowning in traffic, but for the entire region.