Bogs are increasingly threatened. It is mainly the drought that bothers them. In the holiday region of Loisachtal near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, conservationists see the Free State of Bavaria as having an obligation to repair damage to the biotopes.
Munich (dpa / lby) - The Kramer tunnel is intended to relieve people in Garmisch-Partenkirchen of through traffic - but according to conservationists this is at the expense of nature. Due to the construction of the tunnel, wet biotopes of supra-regional importance have largely dried up and biotope complexes that are protected in Europe have been destroyed, according to the criticism of the Bund Naturschutz. He sees the Free State of Bavaria as having a duty to repair the damage. The Bavarian Administrative Court (VGH) will deal with the legal dispute on Tuesday.
"It is a scandal that the Bavarian road construction authorities are deliberately accepting the destruction of biotopes in a nature reserve of European importance and are refraining from the proposed rehabilitation measures," said BN state chairman Richard Mergner at the court hearing. "We see the court's responsibility to initiate the biotope rehabilitation."
In essence, it is about the groundwater that, according to BN information, entered the tunnel during construction. As a result, the groundwater level on the mountain has dropped significantly, removing moisture from the sensitive moors on the slope. The BN is now demanding that the rock crevices be sealed with concrete injections. "So there is a chance that the groundwater level will rise again and the biotopes can regenerate."
Since 2014, there has been a debate about whether the Environmental Damage Act can be applied in this case. The European Court of Justice has now made it clear that state authorities can also be prosecuted in the context of their professional activities, according to the BN.
The construction of the 3.4 kilometer long Kramer tunnel was planned and prepared for decades. Construction work on the main tube finally began in February 2020. The goal: to relieve the region of thousands of cars driving on federal highway 23 every day from the end of 2024. The Federal Transport Minister at the time, Andreas Scheuer (CSU), spoke of the longest federal road tunnel in Germany.
Environmentalists are not convinced. With a view to numerous other transport projects in the region, they criticize a "road construction orgy". "It is a declaration of transport policy bankruptcy when at least 1.34 billion euros are sunk in road construction in the Loisachtal on twelve kilometers between Eschenlohe and Garmisch-Partenkirchen and at the same time hardly any money is to be spent on avoiding environmental damage or improving the railway infrastructure," said Axel Doering from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district group.
