DThe announcement by Autobahn GmbH is unmistakable: From January 6th until probably January 31st, the federal authority will have parts of the Fechenheim forest closed. This means that there is initially a ban on entering and using around two hectares of forest along the planned route of the Riederwald tunnel. This affects walkers, but above all the environmental activists who started building tree houses in this part of the Frankfurt city forest 15 months ago in protest against the planned closure of the Autobahn gap.
In its official announcement, the federal authority makes it clear that it expressly prohibits this use. This gives the police a handle to clear the areas from January 6th. All with the aim of preparing the clearing of the forest in order to realize the 1.1 kilometer long Riederwald Tunnel after around 30 years of discussion and planning.
Clearing work is imminent
The Autobahn GmbH itself announced on Friday that with the now announced closure, the “clearing work is imminent”. Experts expect that the felling work will start in the second week of January. That is also necessary, they say, because according to the Nature Conservation Act, the felling of trees is only permitted until February 28, so as not to endanger the birds in the breeding season.
“It has to start now,” say experts. After all, it is not clear at what speed the clearing work can proceed and how strong the resistance of the tree activists, who are also supported by parts of the population, is. The highway company expects massive protests, after all, the squatters have “repeatedly stated that they want to prevent the clearing work”. The social networks are also “mobilizing” against the construction project and the clearing.
The motorway company points out that they want to fell the trees, some of which are very high at more than 30 meters, fully and partially mechanically. As far as possible, the harvesters commonly used in forestry should be used, they say. After all, the trees would be felled in an otherwise closed forest stand. According to the highway company, another challenge when clearing is that the forest squatters have connected the trees to each other with wire ropes. In the event of a fall, this could lead to the wire rope tearing in an uncontrolled manner and representing “another unpredictable danger for people in this area”.
Container wagons protect equipment and material
In any case, the highway company points out that the now announced closure of part of the forest should indicate that it is life-threatening to stay there between the trees. There is no other way to protect the forest squatters.
“The forest closure is proportionate,” says the highway company, which is now the owner of the forest. This week she started to set up containers on a construction site area that had already been set up behind the multi-storey car park on Borsigallee – another sign that clearing is imminent. According to the Autobahn GmbH, there are now 66 containers on the site. They would be used for the “storage and security of equipment and materials in connection with the construction of the Riederwald tunnel”.
Apparently, the company is using its experience from the conflicts surrounding the clearing of the Dannenröder forest near Homberg/Ohm in the Vogelsberg two years ago. At that time, she had built a kind of wagon complex out of deep-sea containers in order to store material and equipment in the resulting protected space and to protect them from unauthorized access.
