The Swiss built a “stub” of a motorway in 1964 and have been waiting for a connection from Vorarlberg to the St.Gallen Rhine Valley ever since.
But instead of building the S18, originally the Bodensee expressway, Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) presented a new variant this week. “I have already looked at the situation on site in Lustenau with the mayor. We have a need for action,” says Gewessler in the Vorarlberg LIVE conversation with UN editor-in-chief Gerold Riedmann
The minister was commissioned by the National Council about a year and a half ago to evaluate the S18. Now the result is in. “There is an alternative that can be implemented more quickly and which can therefore relieve the local people more quickly,” says Gewessler about the necessary traffic relief in Vorarlberg.
Disgruntled Switzerland
Dissonances come from the neighboring country. The Canton of St. Gallen was involved with experts at the technical level. And there would also have been talks with Susanne Hartmann, government councilor of St. Gallen and head of the building and environment department. However, Hartmann contradicted this on Wednesday in an interview with “ORF Vorarlberg”: The communication did not work well and the variant was off the table in Switzerland.
Gewessler replies that there was only another personal conversation with Hartmann on Wednesday. The government councilor would have expressed concerns again, but the Greens are counting on further talks. “The canton does not agree with this test. It doubts the usefulness of the new route. In addition, the planning would be set back by years. That is why the canton is calling for the best-secured and most appropriate variant to be pursued and the planning to be speeded up,” it says in a statement that Hartmann sent to the UN.
The whole show
“We have a project in front of us with a motorway that failed before a supreme court,” emphasizes Gewessler, pointing out the alternative that has less environmental impact, is better for the climate and is also said to be cheaper. “It has a number of advantages that could mean that it can also be processed more quickly in the approval phase,” says Gewessler. “The local people expect a quick solution.” In this context, the minister also refers to immediate measures that the country could implement immediately. These included night driving bans, increased controls, entry bans and speed limits. It now has to be implemented. “The country has my full support.”
Gewessler speaks of risk: “Project failed once before”
When asked why the CP variant was not stopped like the Lobau tunnel in Vienna, Gewessler refers to the next step in the procedure, the ability to obtain approval. “The report shows the risks very clearly. The project has accompanied us for decades, it has already failed once.” The risks have remained, but now there is a new one: congestion on the A14. “At the moment it is completely unclear whether this project can even be approved.”
Factual climate of discussion
Gewessler describes the atmosphere in the conversation with Governor Markus Wallner (ÖVP) as “objective and reasonably sober.” It is important to bring solutions to the table. Again she insisted on immediate measures by the country. Because the people in Lustenau are waiting a long time for relief and support. “We have to give them hope.”
The broadcast “Vorarlberg LIVE” is a cooperation between VOL.AT, VN.at, Ländle TV and VOL.AT TV and is broadcast from Monday to Friday from 5 p.m. There’s more here.
