Innsbruck to add tactile guides to newly paved old town

Innsbruck’s old town pedestrian zone will become a construction site again from September 21, as the city installs a tactile guidance system for blind and visually impaired people, ORF reported.

Grooves will be milled into the paving stones to help people navigate. The work is expected to take five to six weeks.

The need for the system was established in April 2024, but its immediate installation was delayed for several reasons. Legal questions had to be resolved, including those concerning the arcade walkway on Herzog-Friedrich-Straße, which is privately owned. An agreement between all parties was apparently reached only later.

The route will not run along the roadway, where outdoor restaurant seating and events are held. Instead, it will follow the arcade walkway on the eastern side between Burggraben and the Golden Roof. The city said this route provides access to a pharmacy, the City Tower with a publicly accessible wheelchair-friendly toilet, the Hofburg and the cathedral.

Streets where the paving was not renewed will remain unchanged in coordination with the Tyrol Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. These include Stiftgasse and Riesengasse, where drainage channels serve as guidance grooves.

The system will also run from Marktgraben through Burggraben, including Franziskanerplatz, to the Court Church. Its design and route were coordinated with the city planning department, Innsbruck’s disability officer and Michael Berger of the Tyrol Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

New paving stones were laid across 7,500 square metres of several old town streets by July 2025.