Westautobahn Salzburg: The 80 falls today
Since March 4, 2015, there has been a flexible 80 km/h speed limit on the A1, the west autobahn, on a stretch of around ten kilometers between Salzburg-Nord and Wals-Siezenheim. If the air quality requires it, the speed will be reduced from 100 to 80.
Because the limit values of the Air Pollution Control Act (IG-L) of 35 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide were exceeded, the decision was made years ago to introduce flexible speed controls on the route section. Air pollutants and also noise emissions should be significantly reduced. This seems to have been successful: the air quality on the aforementioned section of the A1 has been massively increased since 2015, which is of course also due to the significantly improved exhaust gas treatment in diesel engines.
The annual mean value at the Wals-Siezenheim measuring station between May 2021 and April 2022 was 30.3 micrograms. For comparison: In 2014 it was still micrograms. The IG-L limit of 35 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide has been in place for two years, and the EU limit of 40 micrograms of NO2 for three years.
The temporary speed limit will be lifted at noon today, and 100 km/h will be allowed again in the future.