Monographie Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

One of the largest transport infrastructure projects
In this regard, suburban railway is a good keyword: one of
the largest transport infrastructure projects of the region
and local traffic projects of the Deutsche Bahn is the suburban
railway line 13 expansion from Troisdorf to Oberkassel.
Work is to commence on the approximately 13 kilometre
long expansion at the beginning of 2017. Finally, many
citizens of Bonn say. The signing of the realisation and
financing contract by the federal state, Deutsche Bahn and
local traffic administration union in Rhineland in December
2014 was preceded by a ten-year approval procedure.
The objectives of the construction measure are to attain a
better and faster connection to Bonn at the Cologne/Bonn
airport and improve the rail connections between the
metropolitan areas of Bonn and Cologne. In addition to this,
the measures will result in a significant improvement regarding
noise pollution for the inhabitants of the strongly trafficfrequented
stretch, which is part of the main artery to
Rotterdam–Genoa. The maiden voyage is currently planned
for 2028.
And speaking about main artery: the first new Deutsche
Bahn railway line that is exclusively intended for high-speed
traffic has passed through the Rhein-Sieg district since 2002.
Reaching speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour, ICE trains
travel between Cologne and Frankfurt (Main). Good for the
region: since then, the Siegburg/Bonn ICE long-distance
train station has ensured first-class connections to Cologne,
the Ruhr area and Benelux, as well as Frankfurt airport and
southern Germany – in addition to a positive economic
development in and around Siegburg.
Street – wish and reality
The street is the problem child of the regional economy and
of numerous politicians. Meanwhile, a number of major
bottlenecks are found here. On the one hand, and to no
small extent, the region profits from the central location and
the highway network that, all in all, is well-developed. The
distances toward other metropolitan areas and the most
important seaports in Belgium and the Netherlands are
short; what is more, the road and rail network can handle
large commuter flows and individual traffic. On the other
hand, due to its favourable geographic location, the region
is an important transit area; thus the transport infrastructure
is also used by other actors to a considerable extent. Still to
be added to this is that the population in the region is set
to grow further in the coming decades. The same applies –
as can be read in the “Verkehrsleitbild Rheinland 2016” of the
Chamber of Industry and Commerce Initiative Rhineland –
for the freight transport performance in Rhineland. It is set
to increase by about 40 percent until 2030 – and, with it, the
demands that are to be satisfied by the transport infrastructure.
Thus, together with the other Rhineland industry and
chambers of commerce, the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg Chamber of
Industry and Commerce is intensively advocating the
modernisation of the existing infrastructure, in addition to
a sensible expansion.
In this regard, for instance, there are plans for extensive
restoration work at both Rhine motorway bridges in the city
area in Bonn. In 2016, work commenced on the overall
corrective maintenance of the Friedrich-Ebert bridge (A 565),
which today already sees more than 100,000 vehicles driving
over it every day; the work is to last three to four years. As of
2019, the entire Konrad-Adenauer bridge (A 562) is to be
refurbished and reinforced. What is more, the expansion of
the A 565 is currently being planned – including a replacement
construction of the “Tausendfüßer” as well as the
expansion and reconstruction of the Bonn-North motorway
junctions.
In the opinion of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce
and other actors, the two Rhine motorway crossings have
long since not been sufficiently able to cope with the growing
long-distance traffic, especially as the A 562 – which, by
the way, is the shortest motorway in Germany – lacks sen -
sible connections both on the right and left side of the
Rhine. Based on the wishes expressed by the economy, the
so-called “Ennertaufstieg” is to close the gap to the A 3 in the
eastern Rhein-Sieg district, and the connection to the A 565
in the western Rhein-Sieg district is to be achieved, at least
this is the hope, via the “Venusbergtunnel”. By means of this,
the motorway ring around Bonn would be closed. However,
currently, there is only a small probability of realising the two
mammoth projects.
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