Construction work on the Westschnellweg on the federal highway 6
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Traffic jam B6: Why is the construction work on the Westschnellweg in Hanover taking so long?
Hanover.It is one of the biggest traffic jams in Hanover: since mid-March, only one lane has been free in both directions on the Westschnellweg in Herrenhausen. The crash barriers are being renewed on four bridges between the Herrenhausen Gardens and the Klappenburg Bridge. A nuisance for motorists, traffic jams form every day. On many days, commuters hardly see any work on the construction site. Is anything happening in the busy traffic bottleneck?
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“The work will be carried out continuously and in sections on weekdays from Monday to Friday on the almost four-kilometer section in both directions,” says a spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony state authority for road construction and traffic. Her explanation for the often deserted construction site: “Heavy equipment such as excavators are not used, so the work assignment is probably not immediately recognizable when driving past.”
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The Westschnellweg was already a permanent construction site last year. The road surfaces were completely renewed from spring to autumn 2021. Why were the crash barriers not renovated at the same time? The reason for this is the additional static calculations needed to renew the crash barriers, which “unnecessarily delayed the construction work last year,” says the spokeswoman. The foundations before and after the bridges for the new crash barriers, on the other hand, have already been made. The bridges in the edge area were also strengthened. “These measures were taken last year,” said the spokeswoman for the building authority.
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“We wanted to keep traffic restrictions as low as possible”
The crash barriers have been replaced since mid-March after the static calculations had been completed. “We wanted to keep the traffic restrictions as low as possible overall,” says the spokeswoman.
The work is expected to last until May 31st. “As things stand at present, we continue to assume that the work will be completed as planned by the end of May,” the authority said. After that, both lanes are to be released again – and this time no new construction site will be opened. “Further work on the B6 in this section is currently not planned,” says the state authority for road construction and traffic.
By Tobias Kurz