The northern bank of the Main between the Untermain Bridge and the Alter Bridge will be closed for two months from next Monday.

During this time, events are to take place on the almost one kilometer long Mainkai near Römerberg and Eisernem Steg.

Traditional events such as the Mainfest and the Museumsuferfest, but also events in connection with the Eurobike bicycle fair, which was held in Frankfurt for the first time.

In the meantime, the city wants to make the Mainkai an attractive venue and meeting place for Frankfurters under the motto "Summer on the Main".

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The mobility department has developed a bypass concept for this time, which was presented at the beginning of this week, according to which car traffic north of the city center is to be diverted via the avenue and plant ring, while truck traffic is to be routed via the Mörfelder Landstraße in Sachsenhausen and thus through the southern part of the city.

As Dorothee Allekotte, Head of the Traffic Affairs Department at the Road Traffic Office, informed the mobility committee of the city parliament, these are the routes that the office found to be the most efficient.

The suggestions for bypassing the Mainkai are recommendations;

it is not forbidden to choose other routes.

"Of course the traffic shifts when a road is closed"

With the concept, the department reacted to the massive problems during the one-year trial closure in 2019 and 2020, when the Mainkai near Römerberg and Eisernem Steg was closed to motorized traffic for the first time.

At that time, there were significant traffic obstructions on the Main bridges and on the adjacent streets in the city center, especially on Berliner Strasse and in northern Sachsenhausen.

"Of course, the traffic shifts when a road is closed," said Allekotte.

The Mainkai is a central east-west connection in the city.

Before the start of the corona pandemic, around 20,000 vehicles were on the road there every day.

When counting in October 2020, i.e. between the lockdown phases and after the end of the first blocking for test purposes, the volume was around 12,000 vehicles.

The department does not know how many there are at the moment.

Overall, the traffic department is assuming around 20 percent less traffic due to the summer holidays.

Outside of this eight-week closure - which, according to the will of Traffic Director Stefan Majer (Die Grünen), will be repeated next summer - the Mainkai should not be regularly sealed off.

The additional closures considered by the Roman coalition at night from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and on all weekends and public holidays will not exist.

The department announced that the effort required for this would be too great.

It is said that bollards and barriers would have to be set up, diversions would have to be signposted and traffic lights would have to be adjusted for a blockage.

Until the Mainkai is finally car-free - a goal that Majer wants to have achieved by the end of the legislative period - a blockage only makes sense if it lasts at least four weeks.

So there will be no closure of the Mainkai during the autumn holidays.

The attitude of the FDP is decisive

"We will follow the diversion concept for the Mainkai constructively and critically," said Uwe Schulz from the FDP parliamentary group.

He called for a "regular review of the concept's practical impact on neighborhoods."

In the south in particular, there is a risk that alternative traffic will use Textorstrasse and Gutzkowstrasse in Sachsenhausen.

The position of the FDP is decisive, as the Liberals are part of the Roman coalition.

Without them, a permanent closure of the Mainkai is not possible.

City councilor Majer then also said directly to Schulz that “the closure will not be carried out on the back of beautiful Sachsenhausen.

I promise you that.” The Frankfurt CDU also sees the danger that “politics will be made in the Römer to the detriment of the people in Sachsenhausen”.

The Roman coalition failed to involve the citizens.

The Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce is also not convinced of the bypass concept.

"Even if the department has almost 100 diversion signs set up, the many local people will switch to the nearby parallel routes again," said IHK President Ulrich Caspar.

The performance of these routes has been reduced in recent weeks due to the elimination of lanes for cyclists.

Transport companies already have to use significantly more vehicles in order to be able to deliver the same quantities.