Savings plans and dilapidated bridges
Construction industry and ADAC fear traffic collapse
20.06.2024, 13:07
Transport Minister Wissing actually wants to renovate around 4,000 bridges by 2036. However, the government is far from achieving this goal, criticizes the construction industry and warns of the planned budget cuts for motorway construction. This threatens to cause the road network to deteriorate.
Logistics and construction associations as well as the ADAC are warning against federal investment cuts in transport infrastructure and the deterioration of important bridges. More than 4,000 bridges in the area of motorways in Germany alone are in need of repair or need to be rebuilt, a dozen associations said. “If the federal government does not allocate sufficient financial resources for federal highway construction in the current transport budget and medium-term financial planning, this would have fatal consequences – a traffic collapse is to be feared.”
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing announced at the first bridge summit two years ago that the federal government would implement 400 bridge construction projects per year from 2026 at the latest, so that the backlog of repairs would be cleared within ten years. “We are a long way from 400 bridges per year.” In addition, in recent weeks, tenders have increasingly been cancelled due to a lack of money and the Autobahn GmbH’s construction program has been extended overall.
Numerous bridge builders face short-time work
The associations also criticized the fact that the Autobahn GmbH’s budget should be cut by 20 percent to 4.9 billion euros. “This negligent investment policy will lead to more bridges being closed and the road network continuing to deteriorate.” Funds for motorway construction should not be cut. Instead, additional investments of one billion euros per year should be made available “in order to get the bridge modernization program up and running and to ensure the modernization of the federal highways.”
The bridge building program is also important for the construction industry. “The companies have increased their capacities because they were confident that the orders announced by the federal government would come through,” it said. Now the companies are on hold – with financial losses. Short-time work, including in bridge construction, can no longer be ruled out.
The associations include the logistics groups BGL, DSLV and BWVL, the construction associations ZDB and HDB, engineers (VBI) and the General German Automobile Club (ADAC). The traffic light coalition is currently in talks on drawing up the federal budget for 2025.