A 26 West

A 26 West

The heavy traffic volume on the B 73 has led to an increasing shift of traffic from the B 73 onto parallel state, district and city roads for many years. The consequences are reduced travel speeds, many accidents and considerable nuisance to residents through noise, pollutants and partitioning effects.

The A 26 contributes to the development of a subspace characterized by severe structural weakness. In a nationwide comparison, the Stade - Hamburg link will have very severe accessibility deficits in 2015 if the A 26 is not included.

According to the demand plan, the A 7 north of the AK HH-Hafen is to be expanded from currently six to eight lanes. For reasons of traffic quality, it is also necessary to expand the A 7 in the area of the planned connection of the A 26 to the southbound HH-Heimfeld junction to eight lanes.

The A 26 West, the so-called Section 4 of the A 26, is the connecting link from the Lower Saxony state border to the A 7, and together with the A 26 East (Hafenpassage) forms Hamburg's contribution to the new A 26 freeway in the southern Elbe region.

In future, the A 26 will provide an improved link between the Süderel region and the major north-south links A 1 and A 7 as well as a direct connection between the ports on the North and Baltic Seas. It will provide relief for what is currently the most important road link south of the Elbe: the B 73 between Hamburg and Cuxhaven. The federal highway is used by many commuters to and from Hamburg, and truck traffic is also increasing steadily there. In Neu Wulmstorf, an average of around 33,000 vehicles were counted on the B 73 on weekdays in 2013. The same applies to the Lower Saxony/Hamburg state border. Around ten percent of these are trucks.

As a result, many drivers switch to parallel state, district and city roads. This results in more accidents and considerable nuisance for residents due to noise and pollutants. The A 26 is intended to relieve the cities and communities along the B 73 as well as the district and state roads and ensure accessibility to the southern Elbe region.

Facts and figures

• Total length: 8.0 km (A26) and 3.7 km (A7)
• Cross section: RQ 31 (A26) and RQ 43.5 (A7)

Further information: https://www.deges.de/projekte/projekt/a-26-neubau-west-2/