Dresden. Actually, the new federal highway 6 is supposed to solve a big problem in the west of Dresden. The busy route currently runs through the middle of Cossebaude, and many truck drivers use the connection – right past the residential buildings. Against this, violent protests arose many years ago, with signs in front of many houses with inscriptions like “Noise makes you sick”. In fact, measurements have shown that the traffic noise during the day is much too high at 72 decibels, which in turn could cause cardiovascular diseases in those affected.
This is why these residents are demanding that the street be relocated, they want peace and fresh air. The federal and state governments ultimately followed suit, and there are now concrete plans for where the new route should go, and it has now also been included in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030.
And yet the protest does not die down. Because residents are now also affected by the new route, namely in the Stetzsch district, which connects to Cossebaude in the direction of Dresden. Those who live directly on the train tracks will later – when the new B 6 is finished – have a six-meter-high noise barrier in front of their property. Noise should not play a role here, but a look at the site shows that there is hardly any space there, and some garages and garden plots will have to give way to the new street.
The new B 6 (blue) is to run for four kilometers between the Dresden-Altstadt motorway exit and Cossebaude parallel to the railroad tracks. This is to relieve the old B 6 (red). © Visualization: Deges GmbH
That is also the reason why Peter Bartels from the citizens’ initiative “B 6 new – not like this” can hardly calm down these days. He is furious that the Federal Ministry of Transport has officially included the construction project in the 2030 traffic route plan and that the new B 6 is as good as a done deal. Because, from his point of view, the Free State that applied for admission made false statements about it.
Specifically, it is about the passage that no residents are directly affected by the new B 6. “That’s not true,” says Bartels, referring only to the land directly on the route that would be trimmed. “You can hardly be more directly affected.” Therefore, the citizens’ initiative now wants to check whether the inclusion in the federal transport route plan was correct.
Bartels and his colleagues do not want to give up, they continue to fight for a new B 6 that is friendly to residents and the environment, as they say. They have already submitted two petitions to the Bundestag and sent letters to the Federal Ministry of Transport; even the Chancellor received mail from the Dresdeners a few days ago.
The protesters have suffered a number of setbacks in recent years, for example with regard to the road connection to Dresden and to the local supermarkets. Direct access to the new B 6 will not be possible for many residents south of the route. The planners at Deutsche Einheit Fernstraßenplanungs- und -bau GmbH (Deges) reject this, and the city would also have to contribute to the construction costs.
However, with the new road, several level crossings that are currently used by motorists will be eliminated. Bartels himself uses the level crossing in the street Am Urnenfeld. Later he would have to use a parallel road, which is also still to be built and then leads in the direction of Cossebaude, where the crossing is then possible. The animal shelter will then also be accessible via this street.
The request of the citizens’ initiative to build an underpass that can also be used by vehicles instead of the planned pedestrian bridge, which will cross the carriageway and tracks at a height of seven meters, was unsuccessful. The tunnel was rejected for cost reasons, and also because other residents had raised safety concerns about a dark underpass, says Deges. Bartels is mad. “No matter what we propose: it is always rejected on the grounds that it would be too expensive and unnecessary. We will continue anyway.”
The plan approval procedure, in which the State Office of Saxony has to examine and approve the construction project, has not yet started. “That could be a good sign,” says Bartels, who hopes that something will be changed in the plans after all. In the course of the procedure, the public is then also involved and objections to the project can be submitted.
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