Road defect after winter chaos
30.12.2010
D urch the unusually harsh winter, the municipalities come under increasing financial pressure. The German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) and the ADAC assume that every second municipal street will be littered with potholes in spring due to frost. Eight to ten billion euros are actually needed to improve them comprehensively. Economics minister Rainer Brüderle (FDP), meanwhile, dampened hopes for a rapid reform of the municipal finances.
Road construction project to public-private partnerships
DStGB chief executive Gerd Landsberg said, for road construction 'there In the municipal sector it amounts to around five billion euros per year. We would actually need twice that to keep the roads in such a way that the infrastructure does not deteriorate. ' Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer (CSU) recently announced that it would increasingly rely on public-private partnerships in future road construction projects. The pro-rail alliance criticized that the government wanted to spend 100 percent of the truck toll on road construction from 2011 onwards.
Last winter caused road damage of 3.5 billion euros, Landsberg said. 'Of course they haven't all been eliminated, they've been patched up a bit.' A thorough renovation, as it is actually required now, would cost 'at least 25 billion euros'. The municipalities do not see any scope for reallocating funds in favor of road construction: 'We cannot say that we do not pay any social assistance, we improve the roads instead.' The automobile club ADAC explained to the 'Bild' newspaper that the hard winter of the previous year and frequent temperature changes around freezing point attacked the substance of the streets more severely than ever before.
The location of cities and municipalities is dramatic
Brüderle said that black and yellow had to take into account the federal states and municipalities in the municipal finance reform. 'We cannot decide that alone in the coalition, even if we are 100 percent in agreement. That is only possible as a collective effort.' The talks in the community finance commission, which was started loudly by the Union and FDP at the beginning of March, have not been moving for months, although the situation in many cities and communities has deteriorated dramatically. The municipalities expect a record deficit of eleven billion euros in 2010. The main point of contention is the future of trade tax. Brüderle wants to do without them like the economy.
The Transport Committee of the Bundestag will join its first meeting in the new year (January 19) at the request of the SPD, Left and Greensdeal with the winter chaos on roads, airports and railways. Ramsauer had offered to present a 'report on the effects of winter conditions on all modes of transport' by then.
The funds from the Federal Economic Stimulus Package II, which should primarily benefit the municipalities, were able to overcome the investment backlog that had existed for years do not dissolve in the tight municipalities. This emerges from the balance sheet of the German Association of Cities. The municipal umbrella association praised the simplification initiated by the federal government in the procurement law and demanded its extension. The municipalities invested the funds from the economic stimulus program, which was supposed to boost the economy and secure jobs in the past crisis years, primarily in schools, kindergartens and hospitals.
