Repair of winter damage: City Council approves additional funds
In light of the road damage caused by the extreme winter, the state of Saxony decided in April to provide the independent cities, municipalities and districts with an additional 50 million euros for the sustainable repair of roads. The city of Chemnitz will receive a grant totalling 1,351,419 euros. However, the local authorities have to contribute 25 per cent of these state funds. At its meeting yesterday, Chemnitz City Council therefore approved additional funds of 451,000 euros to implement the special programme to repair winter damage. These funds are available in addition to the regularly planned expenditure for repairing winter damage.
Over the past few weeks, the civil engineering department has analysed and listed the winter damage to Chemnitz's roads. The resulting tasks range from minor repairs to major road upgrades. As a result, individual construction projects will be realised this year, but those requiring more extensive planning will not be completed until 2014.
The paper contains fourteen road and junction areas where winter damage is to be repaired this year. The largest area of damage to be repaired is on Chemnitzer Straße in the Grüna district between Fabrik- and August-Bebel-Straße. An area of 5,000 square metres is affected here alone, and the work on Schönherrstrasse is of a similar scale. There, the access to Lohrstraße and the railway bridge has to be renewed. Repairs are also due to be carried out shortly on Reichenhainer Straße between Südring and the Sportforum access road, as well as on Leipziger Straße at the railway bridge. Others include various intersections on Theaterstraße and a section of Waldenburger Straße.
The traffic authority is now faced with the task of coordinating diversions and bypasses in such a way that traffic flows without major obstructions. In addition to the construction projects to repair winter damage, there are currently twenty long-term road construction projects in progress.
This is another reason why six major projects to repair winter damage have been postponed until next year. These include work on the Südring between Saydaer Strasse and Annaberger Strasse as well as between Helbersdorfer Strasse and Paul-Bertz-Strasse. Construction work on Dresdner Straße between Fürstenstraße and Peterstraße will also be carried out next year with funds from the state's special programme. Sections of Winklerstraße, Bornaerstraße and Parkstraße are also on the civil engineering department's agenda.