Although the construction work has long since started, the opponents of the further construction of the Autobahn49 in Central Hesse near Dannenrod are not giving up.
However, the resistance is shifting from the forest to the legal level.
Two farmers are suing the construction work.
In the first case, a farmer asserts that the construction of a pillar for the 400-meter-long motorway bridge over the B62 and the Gleental on a meadow leased by him is illegal.
He has submitted an application for a temporary injunction to stop construction at the Alsfeld district court.
The plaintiff has leased the parcel for an indefinite period since 2003.
According to lawyer Matthias Möller, the property is owned by the Mittelhessische Wasserbetriebe, which has granted the Deges transport project company a building permit, although the property rights remain with his client as the leaseholder.
The farmer only agreed to a remote drainage of rainwater, but not to a bridge pier.
Proceedings can drag on
The plans for the building were shown to him two years ago, but the negotiations remained fruitless.
After renewed discussions at the beginning of March, the construction companies would not have reported again.
In April excavators then drove into the meadow and started work under police protection.
In the second case, the Hessian State Court has to deal with a fundamental rights lawsuit. The question is whether the Federal Republic of Germany is currently illegally building the A49 on the plaintiff's land in the Maulbach and Homberg districts. In his opinion, the federal government did not complete the nature conservation measures stipulated in the planning approval decision in good time to be able to intervene in its areas with the construction. The area was withdrawn from the farmer by orders from the Hessian land consolidation administration. He fears disadvantages for his business due to bottlenecks in feed and manure spreading.
Since several grounds of complaint are listed - the documents comprise nine files - and the procedure is likely to take longer, the farmer has also applied to the State Court for an interim order. Previously, he had been unsuccessful in the urgent legal protection proceedings before the Hessian Administrative Court.