Federal Administrative Court stops A26-Ost: Planning must be revised!

Federal Administrative Court stops A26-Ost: Planning must be revised!

The plans for the A26-East in the port of Hamburg have suffered a setback. As cnv-medien reports, the Federal Administrative Court has classified some of the drafts as illegal. The planning approval decision for the first section of the new motorway must be revised in order to meet the legal requirements.

The reason for the legal dispute are lawsuits from the nature conservation associations NABU and BUND, which took action against the plans at the time. Their objections were that climate protection concerns were not sufficiently taken into account and that the construction endangered valuable natural areas. The aim of the A26-East, which runs from the A26-West in the Stade district to the A7, is to create the urgently needed relief for the Harburg district and to redirect port traffic.

Environmental protection in focus

In their lawsuit, the environmental associations particularly spoke out against the loss of around 150 hectares of natural areas, which is equivalent to more than 200 football fields. The South 1 variant selected by the planners, which takes up 18.5 hectares of high-quality moorland, was heavily criticized. According to the associations, the alternative South 2 variant, which would be shorter and cheaper and would not have to use fen soil, would have been the more suitable solution. These arguments led to a successful objection from environmental organizations, which highlighted violations of water and nature conservation law.

The court also found that alternative routes had not been sufficiently examined from the perspective of the Climate Protection Act. This decision could have a significant impact on the project. However, a lawsuit from a refinery operator who criticized safety distances from high-voltage lines was rejected as unfounded.

Further development and significance of the project

The process surrounding the construction of the A26-East began some time ago and was anchored in the coalition agreement of the red-green Senate in 2020. The planning approval decision for the first section was issued in December 2023. It remains to be seen whether the city of Hamburg can “cure” the criticized points in a supplementary procedure. Some experts suspect that the Federal Administrative Court's ruling may be announced as early as next week, which would represent a further step in the decision-making process on this controversial construction project.

It remains exciting to see how the further development of the A26-East turns out, as many eyes are on this project - both from the city administration and from environmentalists who believe in the importance of a balanced relationship between infrastructure and nature. The need to control traffic in the port while taking ecological concerns into account could become very important in the coming period.