Road traffic
First eight-lane motorway in Switzerland? Environmental associations are declaring war on the “billion-dollar construction craze”.
It will be a heated voting battle. In November, voters will decide on a billion-dollar expansion of the highway. For opponents, the projects represent a completely outdated transport policy.
On the Grauholz section near Bern, the A1 motorway has already been expanded to three lanes.
The resistance comes with an announcement: in the debates in parliament, left-green politicians had already threatened a referendum if the middle-class majority prevailed. A broad alliance of environmental associations, the Greens and the SP opened the vote against the expansion of the motorway on Wednesday. In November, voters will decide whether five billion francs should be allocated to projects in Basel, Bern, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen and Lake Geneva over the next few years.
From the opponents’ point of view, the “construction mania” costing billions of euros does not solve the traffic jam problems. On the contrary. Expansions would lead to more traffic in the long term, VCS co-president David Raedler told the media on Wednesday. Even the Federal Roads Office (Astra) admits that the expansion in French-speaking Switzerland will lead to even more traffic, said Green National Councilor Franziska Ryser.
For the St.Gallen resident, the billion-dollar expansion is just the beginning. The Federal Council has already introduced projects worth 35 billion francs through parliamentary channels. But many affected communities are already resisting the projects. The reason is the pollution from noise and exhaust fumes. From Ryser’s point of view, the expansion plans also contradict the climate goals.
The opponents hope for support from the farmers. If the highway projects are built, farmers will lose cultivated land, and they have already taken to the barricades against this in the past. However, the chances of cooperation have been rather slim since the farmers’ association entered into a strategic alliance with business two years ago.
