Sontra (dpa/lhe) - After nine years of construction, the Hirschhagen tunnel on the Autobahn 44 in northern Hesse was opened to traffic on Friday. With a length of around 4,200 meters, the structure near Sontra-Wichmannshausen (Werra-Meißner-Kreis) is the longest and Germany's second-longest road tunnel, according to Autobahn GmbH des Bundes. According to this, only the 7,916-meter Rennsteig tunnel is longer as part of the A71 between Erfurt and Schweinfurt.
"I am pleased that with the release we are taking another important step towards completing the entire A44," said Oliver Luksic, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, according to the announcement. The A44 is an important European and domestic German connection in the west-east direction.
The federal autobahn begins near Aachen and has so far ended at the Kasseler Kreuz. The gap to the A4 near Eisenach is to be closed with a 70-kilometre-long new building. The project consists of twelve sections. With the now approved section between Helsa (Kassel district) and Hessisch Lichtenau (Werra-Meißner district), to which the Hirschhagen tunnel belongs, six of them are finished. According to Autobahn GmbH, the federal government is investing around 346 million in this section alone. So far, the federal government has estimated the total cost of the project at 2.7 billion euros.
The next step in closing the gap on the A44 is the completion of the section between the Waldkappel and Ringgau junctions in the Werra-Meißner district. According to the announcement, this is expected to be in the second quarter of 2023.
