Measures and goals

The Lueg bridge battle on the Brenner highway

"We are doing what we can," emphasizes Provincial Councillor René Zumtobel.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Due to the renovation delay, the Brenner highway has to be partially single-lane. A major challenge for politicians, Asfinag, plagued motorists and local residents.

The single-lane traffic routing on the Brenner freeway is necessary after many external expert opinions commissioned by Asfinag, because the renovation has been unnecessarily delayed for a very long time for well-known reasons such as the objections of the mayor of Gries.

Because of these delays, the bridge must now be structurally relieved. A single four-axle truck weighing 40 tons puts as much strain on the road as 60,000 cars. "Despite this, it has been possible to allow two lanes of traffic under strict supervision on around 180 days with a predicted increase in traffic. The heavy vehicles over 3.5 tons then have to drive in the inner lanes," explains the responsible Transport Minister René Zumtobel (SPÖ) in an interview with the "Krone".

Package of measures from the state to cushion the impact
The single lane will be a major challenge, especially in summer. Then, when the whole of Germany travels south. However, the state will do everything it can to maintain traffic flow and security of supply. For example, there are five additional metering traffic lights along the Brenner road - there are now seven in total (two southbound, five northbound). Furthermore, there are driving bans on the lower-ranking road network in the Wipptal valley and in the greater Innsbruck area (initially until February 28, daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) for vehicles bound for Italy or Germany.

The public transport service has also been expanded: 33 transfer-free connections between Innsbruck and Brenner every half hour. And last but not least, there will be no additional road construction work during the renovation.

Our aim must be to keep the delays to a tolerable level and to reduce the diversion of traffic through the surrounding communities and villages to a minimum.

Verkehrslandesrat René Zumtobel

Bild: Christof Birbaumer

"With such a large construction site and the high traffic load, it is important to pull together. Asfinag, the federal government, the province and the police are doing this and have planned their measures long-term and with foresight, coordinated them and communicated them internationally. Nevertheless, there will always be delays and traffic jams at the Brenner Pass, the busiest of all Alpine crossings with around 2.4 million trucks and a total of 14 million vehicles last year - we have to be honest about that. Our goal must be to keep these delays to a tolerable level and to reduce the diversion of traffic through the surrounding communities and villages to a minimum," emphasizes Zumtobel.

909,000 vehicles in January, 192,000 of which were trucks
And what does the situation look like after one month of the Luegbrücken construction site? In January, 909,712 vehicles were registered in Schönberg - six percent fewer than in January 2024. 192,000 of these were transit trucks (2.92 percent fewer than in the previous January). "During this period, 10,000 cars were turned back from the provincial and federal roads in the districts of Innsbruck and Innsbruck-Land." Most of the traffic jam evaders would not leave the highway with bad intentions and clog up the through roads.

Solution required for sat nav problem
"The problem is navigation services that automatically suggest an alternative route as soon as there are delays on the main route. We finally need federal regulations and sanctions so that temporary and local driving bans must be displayed in the navigation systems. If the new federal government were to initiate this, an important step would have been taken," concludes Zumtobel.