Kassel/Leipzig (ddp-lth). Almost six years after a
construction stop imposed by the Federal Administrative Court,
construction of the A 44 motorway from Kassel to Eisenach can now
be continued after all. On Wednesday the Leipziger Court declared
the revised planning of Land Hesse to be lawful (file ref.: 9 A
3.06). The nature conservation organisation BUND had complained
that the route near Hessisch Lichtenau will continue to pass
through a highland area which is protected under the European Flora
Fauna Habitat Directive (FFH). But the court considered public
interest in construction of the motorway to be justified.
The highest German administrative judges did however agree with
the conservationists that "substantial impairment" of the protected
area is to be expected. During the verbal negotiations they had
therefore demanded the Land further improve the plan approval.
In May 2002, the Federal Administrative Court had upheld a
complaint by BUND against the same 2.2 kilometre long section of
the A 44 motorway and ordered the Land to replan the project. But
the planners had stuck to the northern bypass of the small town of
Hessisch Lichtenau - because otherwise the only section of the 64
kilometre route from Kassel to the A4 motorway near Herleshausen to
have been completed up until now would no longer have been able to
be used. The court considered this to be legally right.
The planned motorway is the last "German Reunification"
transportation project. Its construction, fought over for years,
will swallow up the record sum of 1.2 billion euros. Among other
things, the A 44 should relieve the residents along the highly
trafficked B 7 trunk road from Kassel heading towards the east.
Opponents of the project on the other hand say that this objective
could be achieved better and more cheaply with bypasses and by
widening the federal trunk road.
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