The A3 expansion between schlusselfeld and the furth/erlangen interchange is running at full speed. Construction sites along the main european artery are taking on ever more impressive dimensions. Probably the residents of the gremsdorf district of buch will be the first to notice – especially those whose garden fence borders directly on the highway construction site.
This is where gremsdorf councillor monika pfann lives with her family. For the next few years, she will have a rough construction site right in front of her house – and later, the traffic will rush past her property on six lanes even eight meters closer than before.
Deliberately built here
The pfanns were not surprised by the widening of the A3, by the way. "Even when we were building here, we knew that the freeway would have six lanes", says monika pfann. However, she and her fellow council members stefanie hahn and andreas hahn, who also live in buch, originally assumed that the autobahn would not only be widened on one side in the direction of buch, but to the west and to the east as well.
These ideas were shattered when the freeway authorities in northern bavaria informed them that "an asymmetrical widening on the buch side" would be possible is planned for this section between hochstadt-east and erlangen-west. The bird sanctuary at the brandweihern, numerous biotopes and the pond chains near buch" were among the reasons given against widening the road to the east led.
Monika pfann has filed this letter in her A3 expansion folder, along with other comments, inquiries, sketches of plans and newspaper clippings. In the meantime, it is not only clear to the three buch councillors that the plans can no longer be altered, especially since the excavators on the edge of the town have already eaten their way deep into the land.
Nature conservation pays more
However, there is no understanding in buch for the fact that nature conservation is obviously paying more than mankind. Gremsdorf’s mayor norbert walter (CSU) is also on the side of his burghers in the buch district: "we are glad that the A3 expansion is coming, but we don’t like that everything is happening on the buch side." Walter and the affected bookers can now only hope for the planned larmschutzmabnahmen. "We are sure that it will be quieter", says highway neighbor pfann.
The roadworks carried out by "A3 nordbayern gmbh& co. KG" – the A3 is being upgraded as part of an opp project for the federal government and will be operated thereafter – the planned anti-pollution measures are enormous for the residents of buch. A six-meter high earth wall, on top of which a wall up to five meters high is to be installed, is to protect the bucher from traffic noise. In addition, the roadway will get a flusterasphalt. The bridge in the direction of neuhaus is shielded by a three-meter-high transparent armored barrier.
Eleven meter high larmschutz
The farmers are not yet completely resigned to the expansion. "We appealed through the farmers’ association, but we had no chance", a look back by andreas hahn, himself a farmer and member of the local council. The farmers will lose too much arable land as a result of the expansion, and they are also looking for compensation areas.
Even if the A3 is coming closer to them, the inhabitants of buch hope that the larmschutzmabnahmen will bring them more peace.