Schmiedrued Seeks Loan for Street Renovation and Safety Improvements

Eggschwilstrasse is in poor condition, narrow and there is no sidewalk. The local council wants to tackle these three problems over a length of 400 meters and is applying for a commitment loan of 830,000 francs at the local meeting on Friday, November 17th.

Problems for winter service

From the junction with Kantonsstrasse to the Löhrenstrasse intersection, the surface shows various types of damage, as can be seen from the voting template. This also makes winter service increasingly difficult. The construction of a sidewalk with a width of 1.75 meters, the widening of the street to 4.50 meters and the renewal of the street surface are to be financed with the loan.

The planned sidewalk offers greater safety for pedestrians, especially school children, it goes on to say. With a width of 4.50 meters, two cars could easily pass each other on the road in the future, but in sporadic encounters between cars and trucks or agricultural vehicles, it would be necessary to move onto the sidewalk. This should therefore be carried out with a collar stone with a stop height of only three centimeters.

Things become one-track in the eye of the bottleneck

The bottleneck on the route is the properties at Dorfstrasse 51 and Dorfstrasse 28. The two houses are so close together that the sidewalk has to be narrowed to 1.20 meters and the street to 3.30 meters (single lane). The project involves the creation of five additional candelabra, the relocation of a fire hydrant and other minor work.

In view of the low traffic on Eggschwilstrasse by vehicles and pedestrians, the planning of the road renovation is a reasonable compromise in terms of land use and costs, the local council explains its plans.

An additional loan that was already apparent in 2020

The local council is also asking voters for approval for an additional loan of 180,000 francs for the overall revision of the settlement and cultivated land usage planning. In 2020, the municipal assembly already approved a commitment credit of 230,000 francs for the overall revision. It was already apparent at that time that the canton, at the request of the federal government, would have to specify the hamlet specifications in the structure plan and that the communities would then have to adapt their usage planning.

The extent of the need for action could not yet be estimated at the time, and the implementation of the hamlets was therefore explicitly excluded when the contract was awarded at the time. This year, on June 27th, the decision was made by the Weiler chapter in the cantonal structure plan. The requirements that must be adhered to are now known and the municipality is therefore obliged to tackle the implementation of the hamlets. The local council estimates the additional costs at 180,000 francs, which it will apply for at the meeting on November 17th.

The budget for 2024 provides for personnel expenses as well as material and operating expenses of around one million francs each, depreciation of 402,000 francs and a fiscal income of a good 2.6 million francs. A total result of minus 82,700 francs is budgeted. This is with an unchanged tax rate of 120 percent.