With its list of 144 road projects that are to be accelerated forward, the traffic light coalition in northern Germany has caused considerable irritation: Above all, the A20 motorway is missing from the list, which will one day lead from Brandenburg to the northwest of Bremen, but currently ends in the east of Schleswig-Holstein.

Susanne Preuß

Business correspondent in Hamburg.

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Instead of accelerating, there could even be a delay, one suspects in Schleswig-Holstein – because the acceleration of many projects could also lead to the imminent overload of the Federal Administrative Court. The consequence could be that the pending lawsuits against four out of eight construction phases of the A20 get stuck in the judicial jam, so the fear.

"The A20 will provide significant economic impetus for the whole of northern Germany," Schleswig-Holstein's Economics Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen (independent) praises the importance of this motorway in a letter to the responsible Federal Ministers Volker Wissing (FDP) and Robert Habeck (Greens), which is available to the F.A.Z.: "It is of central importance for the transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality."

Important for investment decisions

Schleswig-Holstein is hoping for the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt as a kind of anchor investor on the North Sea coast, which could lead to a wave of further industrial settlements there. The company has not yet made a final investment decision. "New settlements of businesses only happen if there is a connection to supra-regional transport connections," Madsen points out: "I therefore urge the inclusion of the A20."

Madsen would also like to have another project in the acceleration list of the traffic light coalition: the bridge between the island of Fehmarn and the mainland. The existing bridge would not be able to accommodate traffic from Denmark when the Fehmarnbelt tunnel is completed one day, Madsen warns. Here, too, it would be "extremely important to establish this overriding public interest," asks the Minister of Economic Affairs.

He was also "very irritated" that the waterway system was not mentioned, despite its importance for climate protection: "A great opportunity in the mix of transport modalities is being squandered here." Above all, Madsen is concerned with the Kiel Canal, which is passed by almost 30,000 ships every year and has an urgent need for maintenance. Due to dilapidated embankments, the speed limit in the canal has already been reduced to reduce the flow and thus prevent further underwashing.