The German newspaper Bild writes this on Thursday based on internal documents from the Ministry of Transport.
The shortage is there, despite the fact that the government of Friedrich Merz (CDU) was given room at the beginning of this year to spend an additional 500 billion euros to get the economy going. In addition, it was the intention that part of it would be invested in new asphalt.
However, none of that ends up, the newspaper notes on the basis of the documents. Building plans that are ready to be implemented will remain on the shelf for the time being. The budget mainly goes to maintenance, but for that, too, there are shortages of up to 40% in many areas to do the necessary work on the 37,000 kilometers of asphalt that falls under the responsibility of the federal government.
‘The expectation is that the financial gap will soon increase from 2026’ and new planning ” in principle impossible, “the newspaper quotes from the documents of the Ministry of Infrastructure.
The German association for motorists ADAC says he cannot yet respond to the plans, because she has not seen the pieces themselves. In a general sense, according to a spokeswoman, it is to be expected that the defect and money will lead to more traffic jams, more trajectories with poor asphalt and more places where you have to drive more slowly, especially with viaducts. “We have four thousand bridges and viaducts that need maintenance.”
Northern Rhine-Westphalia bordering on the Netherlands is missing 5 billion euros and 29 projects would be at stake alone, including the expansion of the road capacity at the busy junction at Liver Cushion.
On the way to the south, the planned extension of the highways at Wiesbaden and Kassel might go and the already approved expansion of the number of lanes on a part of the A8 between Stuttgart and Munich would not continue.