Greenpeace e.V.
Hamburg (ots)
The construction and expansion of motorways and federal roads threatens to become three times as expensive as originally calculated by the Ministry of Transport. A new Greenpeace analysis shows that the construction of around 800 road projects, which are given top priority in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan (BVWP), would cost a total of 153 billion euros by 2035 instead of the originally calculated 50.9 billion. (Online: https: / act.gp/3Juom1T) It is based on the Federal Government’s responses to the cost development of 351 construction projects. The information comes from a small request from the left. “The Ministry of Transport is systematically paying off its climate-damaging road construction plans,” says Lena Donat, Greenpeace traffic expert and co-author of the report. “If you do the math correctly, you can see that the planned roads will actually cost a good 100 billion euros more. In order for Transport Minister Wissing to meet his climate targets and not hopelessly overshoot his budget, he must stop the construction of further motorways and consistently rely on the railways.”
The ongoing dispute between the FDP and the Greens over the expansion of the motorway network is to be settled in a coalition committee this Sunday. The media report that the cost-benefit factor of a project should decide more about implementation in the future. Now the Greenpeace calculation shows that the costs of planned motorways are significantly higher than planned. Just last week, the Federal Environment Agency again underlined the climate lag of transport with data on CO2 emissions in 2022. “Volker Wissing has a CO2 and a financial problem. Building more autobahns makes both worse,” says Donat. “The answer can only be to fundamentally change the Federal Transport Route Plan.”
Costs for road construction projects double on average in ten years
The Federal Government’s response to the changed costs of 351 trunk road projects shows a clear trend: the calculated costs fell for 13 projects and remained constant for 13 others – the other 325 projects all increased in price, some by several hundred percent. On average, the costs of a construction project from the FTIP increase by 10.6 percent per year. After ten years, a project is correspondingly twice as expensive. As early as 2016, the Federal Court of Auditors criticized incomprehensible calculations and underestimates. A low calculated price increases the probability that a project will be implemented – the actual costs only become apparent later on.
Press contact:
Attention editors: If you have any questions, you can contact Lena Donat, Tel. 0151-74290542, [email protected] or press spokesman Gregor Kessler, Tel. 0151-72702918.
Greenpeace press office: Tel. 040/30618-340, [email protected], presseportal.greenpeace.de www.greenpeace.detwitter.com/greenpeace_de
Original content from: Greenpeace eV, transmitted by news aktuell
