EIA negotiations for S10 completed

RAINBACH. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the S10 section Freistadt Nord / Rainbach Nord was negotiated by video conference for four days instead of the planned three. The struggle for details had dragged on the negotiation.

Mayor Günter Lorenz spoke of historic days at the beginning of the negotiations. “Historically, on the one hand, because it is about a very important and secure project for us and, on the other hand, because this negotiation was the first of its kind in Austria, which was held online on the Internet, due to Corona.”

The objections and improvement requests of the local residents and landowners involved were factually processed and answered. “The first positive impressions at the start of the three-day oral session were soon followed by disillusionment. Unfortunately, not all wishes and demands that were introduced could be met, but some demands of the working group that had been set up with citizen participation were incorporated into the project, ”said the mayor.

Numerous objections

The Viennese lawyer Wolfgang List and the expert Egon Zwicker, who was engaged by the citizens’ movement for Rainbach and some private individuals, raised numerous objections to the route, especially in the field of wildlife biology.

Mayor Lorenz said: “All nature and environmental protection concerns that such a project brings with it have been incorporated into the building project through many replacement measures and protective structures and, according to the experts, adequately and with approval,” Lorenz expects the building permit to be issued in the coming year Spring.

Objection would further delay the project

However, if the decision – as indicated at the EIA negotiation – is appealed, it is not legally binding and the Federal Administrative Court in Vienna would have to deal with the matter. “Due to a possible objection, Rainbach again loses around a year on schedule for the impatiently anticipated start of construction of the expressway,” asks Lorenz, “to put the common good of the population before their own sensitivities.”

Citizens’ movement wants “no savings option”

Klaus Reichinger from the Citizens’ Movement for Rainbach (BBfR), on the other hand, sees politics as an obligation: “Dr. List and Dr. In this EIA negotiation, Zwicker provided more than enough reasons that technically justify the green bridges and enclosures along the planned route, which the BBfR repeatedly demands. There is therefore nothing to be said against implementing these urgently needed protective measures. The ball is now back in politics. It now has the unique chance to show that the S10-Nord will not be designed as an economy variant. “

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