Feldkirch tunnel changes trigger another environmental review

Changes to the plans for the Feldkirch city tunnel require a further environmental impact assessment hearing, ORF Vorarlberg reports. The main tunnel sections towards Tisis and Tosters are now to be excavated from inside, a change intended to ease traffic at the Bärenkreuzung junction.

The project must be completed by 2030, but construction stoppages have caused delays. Some lost time has been recovered, and the tunnel is now to be completed as a whole to keep to the schedule. The plan changes mean the project must undergo another environmental review hearing.

The hearing covers only the proposed changes and their environmental effects, not the entire approved project. The changes include a different excavation direction for two tunnel sections and the removal of a planned water-protection facility. The environmental authority expects the review to proceed quickly and says one day should be enough.

Under the new plan, excavated rock would be brought out by lorry, preferably in electric trucks. Tunnel opponents fear this will mean more traffic outside the tunnel, including near its portal in Frastanz. They say the material was originally meant to be transported by rail. The assessment documents say advances in battery capacity, charging speed and infrastructure have made electric lorries a practical and economically viable option.

Critics also warn that some measures to mitigate the tunnel’s effects could be delayed. The revised plans would allow work on certain measures to begin up to a year after the tunnel is fully operational, rather than within six months.

The changes could also delay lorry bans on the current entrances to the city. The redesigned entrances would no longer have to guarantee compliance with planned 30 km/h zones, but would only need to support compliance through design measures. This could make the conversion of state roads into municipal roads less costly.

Two expropriations linked to the tunnel have recently been legally confirmed. The state and the regional administrative court say a requirement in the environmental permit for property rights to be in place before construction does not prevent work from starting before expropriations are carried out. The authorities now want to remove that requirement from the permit for clarity and legal certainty. The amended decision can be challenged.