Gunther geiling for the county council building committee the all-day road trip is a high point in county politics every year in the fall. In the process, the district councils take a close look at the district road network. It goes into the steigerwald and the habberge – also into remote "corners". 321 kilometers has the circle road network. This time it was quite different, because the road trip only took place virtually due to the corona crisis. The members of the committee met in the meeting room of the district administration office in habfurt. The focus was on the expansion plan for the period 2020 to 2026, which was approved with a cost volume of over 24 million euros.
During the meeting, which was chaired by district administrator wilhelm schneider, the district council members saw video images of the state of the trenches. Damaged spots on roads and bridges as well as special traffic situations were pointed out.
Ongoing projects
In addition, it was about the current bridge renovation in zeil. The head of the county’s civil engineering department, alfons schanz, reported on the work being done to protect the bridge, which is now 26 years old from corrosion. Due to the workload of the companies, the district even had to cancel the first invitation to tender and only the second invitation to tender resulted in an economical offer," says thurnau, who is responsible for the project. The work is currently in full swing, which is why the road is partially closed, he said.
Another hotspot: with the completion of the through road in hohnhausen (municipality of burgpreppach), the district is trying to solve the traffic problems at a bottleneck with a special traffic signal. In order to avoid unnecessary waiting times when there is no oncoming traffic, the traffic light reacts to approaching vehicles with the help of sensors and then gives them the go-ahead.
The problem is that the sensors detect cars but not bicycles. If cyclists obey the traffic light regulations, they have to wait at the red light until a car comes along and triggers the sensor.
For another solution
District administrator schneider said that he knew of traffic lights in other places that also react to cyclists. Therefore another solution must be found. At the traffic light a sign with the inscription "cyclists free" was rejected as a solution, because there would be legal difficulties.
Another problem led to discussions in the committee. For example, work on the road from lichtenstein (municipality of pfarrweisach) to buch (municipality of untermerzbach) first requires the relocation of a butterfly species that is under strict species protection. It is the meadow-headed antshrike, the occurrence of which had also delayed the construction of the konigsberg old people’s home.
What grants are coming?
Future tree removal also depends on the requirements of the state of bavaria. In the past, the county assumed a subsidy of 50 percent. Alfons schanz explained that he and his staff had only put 40 percent into the planning. It is hoped that it will not come so far, but perhaps the demand will go down a little bit. With the "more pessimistic planning" the aim is to be on the safe side in any case. District administrator wilhelm schneider said: "i would definitely have liked to have a six on the front, better still a seven."
Some of the work on the previous expansion plan was postponed at the request of the municipalities, partly because of village renewal work. This applies in particular to the dankenfeld, hellingen, wagenhausen and kreuzthal thoroughfares and the lichtenstein-buch road.
The plans
The following road tree removals are included in the expansion plan for 2020: the district road has 46 from the B 303 to ibind for 1 911 000 euros; the district road has 17 with the untersteinbach through road for 375 000 euros.
The expansion plan for 2021 provides for: kreisstrabe has 46 lichtenstein-buch at a cost of 2 530 000 euros; kreisstrabe has 24 ortsdurchfahrt dippach (near eltmann) at 594 000 euros.
The 2022 expansion plan includes: the county road has 27 through wagenhausen at 600,000 euros; the has 26 through dankenfeld at 720,000 euros; the county road has 6 through hellingen at 936,000 euros; the has 58 through kirchlauter at 510,000 euros.
The 2023 expansion plan includes: has 8 local crossing kreuzthal with 840,000 euros, the has 40 from the B 303 to burgpreppach with 345:000 euros; the has 40 local crossing burgpreppach with 1,410,000 euros.
At its meeting, the habberge county construction and traffic committee approved not only the expansion plan but also the upgrading and downgrading of roads. For this purpose, the corresponding agreements with the trench construction administration were accepted. The changes mainly affect the city of zeil.
The background to this is that the construction of the maintal highway and the zeil bypass have changed the importance of individual roads. Concretely it was decided that the zeil bypass will be upgraded from the kreisstrabe to the staatsstrabe, and the ortsdurchfahrt of zeil with the ortsdurchfahrt ziegel-anger will be graded to a gemeindeverbindungsstrabe as well as partially kreisstrabe. This largely fulfills the wish of the town of zeil to be master in its own house again. The arrangements will incur costs because the roads will have to be structurally repaired before they can be transferred to new conditions.