One week of negotiations on nature conservation and water law.
Planned course of the Lobau tunnel.
The hearing with the Federal Administrative Court on the first section of the Lobau Autobahn on nature conservation and water law begins today, Monday. The negotiation will take a week. Environmental organizations and citizens' groups want to continue to fight “this crazy project” legally and therefore call for a demo in front of the BVwG at the start of negotiations.
The protest registered by the police will take place from 8 a.m. to 8:45 a.m., announced the citizens' initiative “Save the Lobau nature instead of concrete”. The participants are asked to wear masks and to keep their distance.
According to its own information, the citizens' initiative has been active against the motorways planned in northeastern Austria, in particular the Lobau motorway, since 2003 and is involved as a party in the associated environmental compatibility and material proceedings.
“We say 'No to transit hell. No to a Lobau autobahn. Yes to climate-friendly mobility. Yes to species protection and local supplies of vegetables in Marchfeld'”, said Jutta Matysek, chairwoman of the initiative, in a press release.
The Lobau tunnel is part of the planned northeast bypass from Schwechat to Süßenbrunn. It has been a controversial topic for many years and is now also a political bone of contention. That was the case under red-green and has not changed under red-pink.
Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) described the northeast bypass as “important for the city”. Politicians hardly have any leeway here anyway, the matter lies with the courts or the Asfinag. Vice Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) admitted that the NEOS consider a tunnel to be “ecologically and economically not sensible”. He sees the last word with Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens).
Courts and authorities have also been involved in the project for years. When, whether and in what form it will actually be implemented is therefore an open question. The state-owned motorway holding company Asfinag expects the decisions of the BVwG in the first half of 2021. “We will wait for them before we take the necessary steps towards the start of construction as a project applicant,” a spokeswoman for the APA recently announced on request.
