At the German-Austrian border, the signs are again pointing to block processing. After the premiere at the end of July, Bavaria reacted with countermeasures for the second time. Traffic jams are guaranteed again.
Munich (dpa/lby) – As a reaction to the block handling in Tyrol, Bavaria wants to block roads away from the Bavarian motorways for cross-border truck traffic again in October. On October 4th and 10th to 13th, this should prevent trucks from being able to avoid traffic jams, the Bavarian state government announced on Friday in Munich.
“We could no longer accept the conditions in the Inn Valley. In order to give people back a better quality of life, we jointly enforced the closure of the country roads for transit heavy goods traffic on block handling days for the first time in July,” said Bavaria’s Minister of Transport Christian Bernreiter (CSU). The measure has proven its worth and should therefore once again provide relief for local residents on the days in question.
On July 25, the departure of transit heavy goods traffic from the A8 and A93 motorways to avoid the traffic jam at the German-Austrian border was forbidden for the first time. Bavaria described the action as an “emergency measure” to relieve the people in the Inn Valley who have been suffering from alternative traffic for years.
“The Bavarian police are responsible for enforcing the driving ban and the associated control and traffic measures,” said Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU). He appeals to all truck drivers to strictly comply with the departure bans. The police will consistently monitor compliance. “In the event of violations, the truck has to turn back and there are fines.”
Since the end of July 2022, signs along the two motorways have been pointing out to truck drivers that trucks over 7.5 tons are no longer allowed to switch to the country roads and thus avoid the traffic jams on the motorway with block handling. The road traffic authorities are blocking the relevant roads in the districts of Miesbach, Rosenheim, Traunstein and Berchtesgadener Land from the motorway junctions for cross-border truck traffic for the forthcoming block clearance on October 4th. The subordinate road network from the motorway exits is affected.
The measure worked very well for block handling on July 25, 2022, it said. Therefore, the closures should also be continued on days with block processing at the German-Austrian border. For transit heavy goods traffic, this means that it has to stay on the freeway.
The background to the whole thing is a dispute between Bavaria and Tyrol that has been smoldering for years. In order to relieve the pressure on the Inntalautobahn leading to the Brenner Pass, the Austrian federal state has restricted entry for trucks on several dozen days this year – at the Kufstein/Kiefersfelden border crossing, a maximum of around 300 trucks coming from Germany are allowed to enter the country per hour. If necessary, the heavy traffic is brought to a complete standstill. This regularly leads to traffic jams in the Munich area – and to sometimes chaotic conditions in communities along the Autobahn in Bavaria.
A conceivable solution for a different traffic control could be a higher toll on the Brenner route – this could help to shift heavy traffic to other routes. Bavaria, Tyrol and South Tyrol had spoken out in favor of this for a long time – but there is no solution in sight here.
