If you want to know what the situation is on your own route, you sometimes have to wait a few minutes. Even on a weekday afternoon, when the actual rush hour hasn’t even started yet – but other rules apply on the motorways in the Munich district during the holiday season. Then the radio newscaster needs some time to process all the traffic reports – and to be able to announce that traffic is backing up on the A 8 from Neubiberg in the direction of the Munich-South motorway junction or that the ring road on the A 99 in the eastern district is full . Two main traffic arteries in the district of Munich are currently experiencing a stress test almost every day, and commuters and truck drivers have to plan a lot of time.
Even when there are no construction sites, the journey can get on your nerves. If you want to turn onto the A 8 from the Mittlerer Ring, you can experience first-hand how the city and district are on the verge of a heart attack every day – right here, where Chiemgaustrasse, Innsbrucker Ring, Rosenheimer Strasse and the A 8 are at one of the few not without an intersection expanded sections of the ring road meet. Traffic jams and long waiting times at the traffic lights are programmed here, especially at the junction from the Innsbrucker Ring in the direction of the Salzburg autobahn.
A noise-reducing surface should relieve the residents
The next hurdle awaits road users right after the intersection at the Mittlerer Ring. By the end of October, the roadway will be completely renewed in several sections on the section from Munich-Perlach to the Munich-South motorway junction – and the federal Autobahn GmbH branch responsible for southern Bavaria has developed a complex system to assess the effects on traffic to keep as low as possible. The renovation of the important route from the state capital towards Salzburg is urgently needed, according to Josef Seebacher, spokesman for Autobahn GmbH, since the road surface has reached the end of its service life – it will be completely removed and a new, noise-reducing surface laid. Together with the speed limits that have been in force for some time, this measure is primarily intended to protect residents in Neubiberg and Unterhaching.
The two lanes heading south are currently being divided from Munich-Perlach, with the left lane being moved to the oncoming lane in the direction of Munich, while the right lane runs as normal on a lane in the direction of Salzburg, while the surface on the free lane is being removed. Due to the relatively short exits and exits at the Neubiberg and Unterhaching junctions, traffic is often congested, especially on the outer lane. The Neubiberg junction in the direction of Salzburg is currently closed, so road users have to switch to the Unterhaching junction. As work progresses on the A 8 from north to south, the entrances and exits at the Unterhaching-Ost and Taufkirchen-Ost junctions will also be closed – these will probably be partially closed one after the other in September and October in the direction of Salzburg.
On the A 99, work on the eight-lane expansion of the bypass continues – almost all bridges will be rebuilt.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
But it is also becoming clear to what extent the motorways are exposed to the north. Especially when the return traffic of holidaymakers from the south starts, there are traffic jams in front of the Munich-South motorway junction, which often start at Irschenberg and continue via Weyarn, the mega construction site at the Holzkirchen exit, where a new bridge is being built, and Hofolding draw; in the sequel, the eastern bypass of the A 99 in particular is currently overloaded and traffic can come to a standstill up to the Munich-Nord junction – or come to a complete standstill.
Meanwhile, in the southbound direction, “open-heart surgery” continues, as Autobahn spokesman Seebacher calls the continuing expansion of the A 99, because despite the massive intervention in traffic, traffic should be as normal as possible and on all available roads during the ongoing construction work Traces run – but the arteries are often clogged. The route from the Aschheim/Ismaning junction to Kirchheim is currently being expanded to eight lanes – as in the section from the Munich-North motorway junction to Aschheim/Ismaning, this expansion actually represents an expansion to ten lanes, since the hard shoulders are also released at peak times . This is also necessary in view of the volume of traffic on one of the busiest motorways in Central Europe, which has to handle up to 160,000 vehicles a day.
The expansion, the dimensions of which can be assessed above all at the gigantic Aschheim/Ismaning motorway exit and the junction there with the important alternative route B 471, will be accompanied by the replacement of almost all bridges over the A 99, which would also have reached the end of their useful life, such as Seebacher explained. During the night from August 20 to 26, the shoring of the new bridge at the Kirchheim junction will be removed again, which may result in partial closures at the ramps. The same will happen again in mid-September when the support structures for the new bridge on Erdinger Strasse will be removed.