The traffic planners of the Senate had already promised a decision to build the bridge two years ago, for June 2020. Now the Senate Commission of the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) has finally cleared the way.

As a spokesman for the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing said on request, an agreement has been reached with the Senate Department for Economics and the Spandau district office about the “construction of a second bridge to develop the area”.

The commission also decided that the area on the island of Gartenfeld would be used in a mixed way, “both as a commercial and residential location”. 3700 apartments are planned.

The plans are more than ten years old – the typical case of construction planning torn between the responsibilities of the Senate and the districts. The location is also ideally suited for the construction of affordable apartments, especially since the state-owned housing company is already planning 1,200 apartments there. 600 commercial units are also planned.

The cost of the district was once estimated at 2.4 billion euros. That was before construction prices exploded as a result of Corona and the war.

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The project is one of the “New City Quarters” with which the Senate wants to make particularly strong progress in housing construction. The building land covers an area of ​​50 hectares, most of which is privately owned. Construction should finally start this year.

In addition to the necessary construction of the new bridge over the old Berlin-Spandau shipping canal to connect the island to the water town of Oberhavel, plans for a tram line and a cycle expressway were still pending. A bus connection to the southwest of the island is also planned. Traffic coordination with the plans for Siemensstadt 2.0 must also be guaranteed, especially since the “Siemensbahn” planned for reactivation is to stop at Gartenfeld station in the future.