Münster/Hückelhoven (dpa/lnw) - Almost 20 years after the first planning for a bypass in the Heinsberg district, the higher administrative court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia stopped the project. According to a ruling by the Higher Administrative Court on Monday, the bypass for Hückelhoven on Landstraße 365 may no longer be built because it was not started within the legally prescribed five-year period. Because of the fundamental importance, the Higher Administrative Court allowed the appeal to the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig (Az.: 11 A 3457/20).
A farmer complained. From 2005 to 2009, the landowner and tenant unsuccessfully appealed against the planning approval decision. Now he was successful. In his opinion, the plan is no longer valid because work has not started within the statutory period of five years after it became final. The reason given by the 11th Senate of the Higher Administrative Court was that construction work does not necessarily have to be involved for the start in order to meet the deadline. However, the country had done too little to prevent the plan from expiring. Only a small part of the required area of 20.9 hectares was actually bought.
According to the OVG, even a land consolidation procedure in 2010 and the felling of two trees would not have been enough to mark the beginning of the new construction of the 3.2-kilometer bypass. The country did not make use of the option to extend the 2009 deadline by a further five years.
