How can you relieve the residents of the Mittlerer Ring, given the masses of traffic that push past their windows every day? The Greens and the SPD in City Hall already agreed in their coalition agreement that tunnels would not help much. They buried the tunnel on Tegernseer Landstraße as well as the one on Landshuter Allee. Now the extension of the Candid tunnel in Giesing is off the table. The majority of the Mobility Committee spoke out against it on Wednesday.
As a reminder: There were considerations to extend the tube by 930 meters to the McGraw ditch. Because the Tegernseer Landstraße is one of the busiest and consequently – in terms of noise and exhaust fumes – one of the busiest streets in the city. 139,000 vehicles are forecast there by 2030. And if a tunnel were to be built, the mobility department even sees an increase in car traffic. Up to 164,000 motor vehicles could then roll along there within 24 hours, 136,000 of them in the tunnel and around 28,000 on the surface.
However, the administration rejects the tunnel. It is too complex in terms of construction and, according to the building department, involves great risks. In addition, the elevators installed in 2020 on the Otkerstraße pedestrian underpass would have to be removed. The investment of 2.8 million euros would not only be lost, but, according to the administration, would also have to be largely reimbursed to the federal government as a subsidy provider.
Construction would be more difficult than the other tunnels on the Mittlerer Ring
It would be uncomfortable for the residents during the seven-year construction period, since the side walls of the tunnel would be much closer to the house foundations than in the existing ring tunnels. Although it would be possible to guide traffic through the construction site using detours and bridges, it would reduce the reception capacity by 36 percent in the most critical final phase of the construction work, which lasts at least 15 months.
According to the mobility department, the transport benefit in relation to the construction work and the costs incurred (a sum was not given) is “significantly too low”. It is therefore recommended not to pursue the extension of the Candid tunnel “and instead to focus on other, smaller-scale measures to improve pedestrian and bicycle traffic and for noise protection for the area of the Tegernseer Landstraße between St.-Quirin-Platz and the junction with the to concentrate on Grünwalder Strasse”.
There are even subsidies for noise protection windows
Noise protection walls and soundproof windows for residents could be considered here. The city even gives grants for passive noise protection as part of a funding program, as SPD traffic expert Nikolaus Gradl noted. Some local residents probably didn’t even know about it.
In addition, the green-red city hall majority would rather reduce traffic in general and thus make tunnels superfluous. This is to be done with a massive expansion of local public transport and cycling. Mobility officer Georg Dunkel contradicted the argument of the CSU, the Free Voters and the FDP that the main burden comes from through traffic, which will continue to exist in the future. According to studies, most of the burden actually comes from commuters.
Paul Bickelbacker (Greens) estimated the construction costs at 500 million to one billion euros. “You can build 50 kilometers of trams for that.” For Fritz Roth (FDP), on the other hand, the proposed measures are nothing but a “fig leaf”. Like Sabine Bär (CSU), he stuck to the demand to build a tunnel. Accordingly, the CSU, Free Voters, Bavarian Party and FDP voted against the proposal of the mobility department. Ultimately, however, the green-red majority prevailed with its rejection of the tunnel. At their request, however, the city council is to decide again at a later date whether a cover could at least be built over the McGraw ditch. A study by the University of Stuttgart is currently being carried out, and the results should be awaited.