The coming months will show that cycle paths – unlike cycle expressways – can also be very fast. On Friday afternoon, the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony in the presence of Bavaria’s Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU) marked the start of work on the new cycle path bridge over the Isar between Ismaning and Garching. The new crossing connects the Ismaninger district of Fischerhäuser to the east of the river and the research institutes of the Technical University in Garching on the left bank of the Isar.
With its slender structure, the bridge should blend inconspicuously into its surroundings.
(Photo: Roplan Engineering Office, Rosenheim)
At the start of the work ceremony, Ismaning’s Mayor Alexander Greulich (SPD) was delighted with the project. It used to be a real risk to build a bridge instead of using the ferry, said the mayor. Today, however, such an inter-municipal project is important, also and especially to make cycling more attractive and thus to promote the traffic turnaround.
The new transition, the cost of which is estimated at a little more than two million euros, was significantly promoted and planned by the Ismaninger town hall administration, whose employees Greulich expressly expressed his thanks for. Of course, the Free State of Bavaria and in particular the State Ministry for Housing, Building and Transport headed by Department Head Christian Bernreiter were behind it as a major partner. Finally, the Isar Bridge was included in the “Radoffensive Klimaland Bayern” project. Above all, this brings financial advantages to the municipalities, because the Free State takes on 80 percent of all eligible costs. If everything goes according to plan, the first pedestrians and cyclists should cross the bridge as early as autumn next year.
Greulich hopes that it will be actively used. Above all, the connection to the university buildings and the underground in Garching offers considerable potential, according to Ismaning’s head of town hall. The crossing itself, with its slender design, should blend in with the sensitive landscape as unobtrusively as possible; the planners promise only minimal interference with nature. “I’m very impressed with how quickly it all went and how quickly everything can now be implemented,” said Greulich.