It cost €721 million, took 12 years to complete, and upset plenty of people – but the extension of the A100 motorway is now finished and open to the public.
The opening of the 16th construction phase was officially marked on Wednesday at noon, when Berlin mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) symbolically cut a black, red and gold ribbon at a ceremony held in the Estrel Hotel in Neukölln.
The new section of motorway runs for 3.2 kilometres, from Neukölln to the Treptower Park junction. Construction involved digging a trench about seven metres deep, diverting traffic away from street level.
Not everyone is celebrating, however. Around 100 people gathered to protest against the city’s investment in car infrastructure, which activists see as a step backwards. Even more controversial is what comes next: the 17th construction phase will extend the motorway across the Spree and link it to Friedrichshain, threatening the survival of several iconic music venues around Ostkreuz.
Politicians from both the Greens and Die Linke have sharply criticised the project, one calling it “the most absurd road in Germany”, while others condemned the mayor’s ceremony, saying it was “a motorway so unpopular that the opening needs to be hidden inside a hotel.”
