Status: 02/17/2021 6:30 a.m.
Via Lower Saxony, the private operator of the A7 between Bockenem (Hildesheim district) and Göttingen, is demanding money from the federal government. The reason was that the expansion of the A7 had incurred high additional costs.
That comes from a response from the Federal Ministry of Transport to Victor Perli, the Lower Saxony Bundestag member of the Left from the constituency of Salzgitter / Wolfenbüttel / Vorharz, which is available to NDR 1 Lower Saxony. These additional costs were incurred because the construction process was disrupted and there was additional effort, according to the letter from the Federal Ministry of Transport.
Diving bats and Stone Age finds
The six-lane expansion of the A7 between Bockenem and Nörten-Hardenberg (Northeim district) has become more expensive by 74 million euros because, among other things, water bats had to be relocated. In addition, around 1,000 archaeological finds from the Stone Age were found during the work.
Arbitration proceedings are ongoing
In the opinion of the private motorway operator, the resulting additional costs are not responsible and would have to be borne by the client – i.e. the federal government. Therefore an arbitration procedure is currently underway. According to the Federal Ministry of Transport, they have already agreed on the disputed questions. The procedure is due to be completed this spring. Perli assumes that a lot of money is involved and now wants to know from the Federal Ministry of Transport what financial damage the taxpayer could face in concrete terms with the construction of the A7.
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