Feucht (dpa/lby) – Deutsche Bahn is currently exploring a former ammunition depot in Feucht for the planned ICE plant in the Nuremberg area. That was necessary because the terrain was extraordinarily complex to assess, said a railway spokeswoman on Wednesday. “The possible elimination of the exposure to explosive ordnance during the construction of an ICE plant offers opportunities on the one hand, but also entails imponderables.” Comparable investigations are not required for the other two possible locations. The spokeswoman emphasized that there was no pre-determination of a location.
An alliance of citizens’ initiatives and nature conservation organizations criticized the investigation of the site at this point in time and before the end of the spatial planning process. This would disturb bats during the protection period and possibly destroy their winter quarters, according to the “Save the Reichswald” alliance. The area is a valuable protected forest and a European bird sanctuary. Any intervention is therefore serious.
According to the railway, a special company is clearing bunkers on the site that were blown up in the post-war period. New groundwater measuring points should provide information about possible contamination of the groundwater and contaminated sites in the soil.
The work had been coordinated in advance with the responsible nature conservation authorities, said the railway spokeswoman. Impairments for flora and fauna should be avoided as far as possible and trees should only be felled in exceptional cases. As of Wednesday, no tree had been felled during the exploration work, the spokeswoman said.
