The costs for the planned express cycle route to Wannsee have almost tripled. Instead of 6.4 million euros, 17.6 million euros are now estimated. This sum was mentioned on Wednesday when the exact 13.8-kilometer route was presented. The reason for the increase in costs is a new bridge at Halensee over the A100. So far, this has not been taken into account. The existing Trabener Steg is too narrow.
Berlin is planning 100 kilometers of so-called “Radschnellverbindungen” (RSV). These should lead from the outskirts to the city center and, above all, motivate commuters to switch to cycling. Six of these routes are to be completed by 2030, the one to Wannsee being one of them. They are planned by the Senate’s own company Infravelo.
There is already a car-free connection parallel to the Avus from Grunewald to the south via the Königsweg and the Kronprinzessinnenweg, which is used by 2,000 cyclists a day, according to Infravelo. This route is also popular with racing cyclists for training.
In the north, you get two connections to the trade fair via Eichkampstrasse and Trabener Strasse/Bornstedter Strasse to Kurfürstendamm. There are 330 car parking spaces in these three streets, said planner Bastian Birkenstock. In the south, the RSV is routed to Wannsee station, and the space there also has to be redistributed.
Cycle highways should be of a high standard: four meters wide for two-way paths, lighting and winter services, run on separate paths, in cycle lanes or separated from motorized traffic.
Cyclists should have priority at intersections with traffic lights and priority at intersections without traffic lights. The specification is that a cyclist should only be delayed by 30 seconds per kilometer traveled, for example by a traffic light.
As reported, the Mobility Act provides for the construction of ten express cycle lanes in Berlin, plus an eleventh route along the Tangentiale Verbindungs Ost (TVO) expressway for cars.
In the meantime, the traffic administration is only mentioning completion by 2030 for six of these routes. The RSV 7 (see graphic) has been completely canceled because it was too short.
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Planning has stopped for two, namely RSV 2 to Spandau/Tegel and RSV 10 to Reinickendorf. The RSV 8 to Spandau should initially be further planned, but no building permit should then be applied for. There is a lack of planning capacity.
The spokesman for traffic senator Bettina Jarasch, Jan Thomsen, emphasized that Route 8 was not “stopped”. When the TVO expressway and with it a cycle path will be finished is still not foreseeable. The remaining six routes together have the 100 kilometers required by the Mobility Act.
The route to Wannsee was previously considered relatively uncomplicated. As Infravelo expert Gabriele Gluth said on Wednesday, many environmental aspects have to be taken into account, since the Grunewald is a landscape conservation area and partly a flora-fauna habitat and bird sanctuary.
Conflicts are foreseeable: in Grunewald, trees have to be felled to widen the Königsweg between Hüttenweg and Auerbach Tunnel, which is too narrow. The rights of lizards and bats must also be respected.
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The fact that a busy federal motorway with tens of thousands of cars rumbles every day is irrelevant for this test. The building permit should be available by 2025, it said. In the best-case scenario, construction could start in 2027 – if no bird, tree or toad conservationists complain.
On Wednesday evening, the traffic management and Infravelo wanted to present the plans to the public at an online event. Most recently, the pedestrian association Fuss e.V. had protested against the routing of several express cycle paths through green spaces. The route to Wannsee runs for a short stretch through the Friedenthalpark am Halensee.
