The arguments for and against the six-lane expansion of the A643, which belongs to the Mainzer Ring, have long been exchanged.

Eleven environmental, climate and nature conservation initiatives from the region are now trying to influence Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) with an online petition published on Tuesday and convince him of the narrower four-plus-two variant.

This would require less intervention in the Mainzer Sand nature reserve, which is already being cut up by the autobahn route.

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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The opponents of expansion united in the alliance "Don't put anything in the (Mainzer) sand" reject the federal government's plan to provide the approximately four-kilometer section between Dreieck Mainz and Schiersteiner Brücke with six lanes and two hard shoulders as well as noise protection walls.

Instead, in their opinion, it should be sufficient to continue to offer road users on the A643 only four lanes.

Only at peak times, i.e. in the mornings and evenings in particular, could the two existing hard shoulders also be released, but they would have to be upgraded accordingly.

The opponents of the expansion suggest that the four-plus-two model, which has already been rejected by the federal government, should be combined with a speed limit and the application of low-noise asphalt for noise protection reasons.

With this in mind, Mainz Mayor Michael Ebling (SPD) and Environment and Transport Department head Janina Steinkrüger (Die Grünen) also approached Wissing in February, who himself comes from Rhineland-Palatinate and worked there for a long time as Minister of Transport.

The planning approval is currently being prepared by the state office for mobility, which has been supervising the infrastructure project, which will probably cost a three-digit million amount for years.

Around 350 objections are to be examined in the course of the hearing by the end of the year.

Later, it would then be the task of the new Autobahn GmbH to implement the six-lane expansion of the A643 planned in the federal traffic route plan, which, even in the best-case scenario, is unlikely to be accomplished before 2030.

According to Ebling, a “workable compromise”, which the majority of the Mainz city council factions had also spoken out in favor of, could certainly be implemented more quickly;

otherwise there was a risk of “protracted legal disputes with an uncertain outcome”.

The CDU and FDP, on the other hand, have repeatedly emphasized that the Rhine-Main area cannot afford a "bottleneck" directly after the Schiersteiner Bridge, which will be completely expanded to six lanes by 2023.

By Wednesday, almost 1,000 opponents of expansion had expressed their wish on the online platform "Open Petition" that the major project should be stopped and the nature reserve preserved.

If enough citizens speak out in favor of it in the next five months, the controversial issue will be brought up again in Berlin - on the desk of the Minister of Transport.