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The second Gotthard tube is under construction. In the future, however, only two lanes will be in operation. That doesn’t suit everyone.
Traffic jam at the Gotthard. A perennial topic in the canton of Uri. The driveway also got stuck again: the waiting time was one and a half hours at times.
Legend:
Whether it’s Easter, Ascension Day or Pentecost: the traffic jam at the Gotthard is part of the agenda,
Keystone/Urs Flüeler
Many drivers try to avoid the avalanche of traffic by taking the cantonal road. This in turn makes the people of Uri angry. The villages in the Urner Oberland suffer from through traffic. Solutions are required.
The Uri Parliament recently sent a professional initiative to Bern calling for concrete measures such as a digital booking system for using the tunnel.
Old idea is warmed up
The Uri FDP politician and district administrator Georg Simmen is now bringing up an idea that has flared up before: he wants to solve the traffic jam problem with the help of the second tunnel tube, which is being built due to the renovation of the existing tunnel and will be ready in nine years should.
We only have two tracks in the Gotthard hole. This is a seich.
So if a second tube is already being built, then you can use that too and all four lanes are needed, says Georg Simmen: “From Hamburg to Milan there are four, six or eight lanes everywhere. We only have two tracks in the Gotthard hole. It’s a seich.”
Legend:
For two years it has been the turn to create the second Gotthard tube. This requires an access tunnel, as here in Göschenen.
Keystone/Urs Flüeler
But as impressive as the idea is for Georg Simmen, it is not that easy to implement. In 1994, Switzerland adopted an initiative to protect the Alps from transit traffic. Therefore, it is planned that there will be two parallel tunnel tubes – but in both tubes there should only be one lane and a breakdown lane.
Django Betschart, manager of the Alpine Initiative, is amazed that the call for four lanes is already burgeoning again. It won’t solve traffic problems, he says. On the contrary: “Four lanes through the Gotthard tunnel attract more traffic. It burdens the population in the Alps even more and it shifts the traffic jam to the Lucerne, Chiasso and Basel areas.”
Four lanes through the Gotthard Tunnel attract more traffic.
In addition, with the vote on the second tube, the promise was made that it should provide more security. If all lanes were used, this argument would have vanished immediately, says Django Betschart.
Four lanes not possible at the moment
When the second tube is completed in 2032, using all four lanes would require a constitutional and legal amendment. Since the Alpine Initiative was adopted, more roads have been banned for Alpine transit traffic.
Paul Richli, Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Lucerne, says: “Changing a constitution means that the Federal Council can draw up a draft. Or Parliament can take the initiative. A popular initiative is also possible.”
The discussion of how many tracks can be used once both tubes are in operation seems to have started. And what does the Uri government think about this? Not at the moment. She doesn’t want to burn her fingers on this hot potato and points out that this is a matter for the federal government.