Two new pedestrian and bike bridges
Infrastructure measures in the north of the Adlershof development area
New infrastructure measures in the north of the development area in Adlershof are going forward. Public transport is being expanded, including a tram line by 2021.
Two new streets, Wagner-Régeny-Allee and Benno-König-Strasse, will soon integrate the Gleislinse area into the city’s public infrastructure. These are currently still under construction. Frank Wittwer, project manager for infrastructure at WISTA.Plan GmbH, is optimistic that the expansion of the development area’s transport infrastructure will be completed according to plan. With the expansion, the Science City’s 32-kilometre road network, which has either been built, or completely overhauled, since 1994, will gain an additional four kilometres.
Gleislinse, the area between the S-Bahn stations Betriebsbahnhof Schöneweide and Adlershof, will provide Berlin with much-needed space for more commercial properties. It will be opened to new businesses in 2020. Several obstacles had to be overcome to get to this point. Gleislinse was home to one of Berlin’s largest populations of sand lizards. Wittwer tells us, how 2,500 of this rare species of indigenous lizards had to be collected and relocated to other parts of Berlin. Their new habitats are now in Herzberge and Pankow. The State of Berlin and Deutsche Bahn invested 1.8 million euro to fund this relocation effort. Located right next to the train tracks, the area is now also home to a 32,000-sqm natural wildlife corridor, which will serve as a public green space and a recreational area for future residents and local workers.
There will also be a range of improvements for those in the Johannisthal/Adlershof development area who use public transport as well as for pedestrians and cyclists. The station Betriebsbahnhof Schöneweide will be completely renovated by 2021. The existing pedestrian and bike overpass bridges and the Adlergestell street will be altered, making the station accessible from two sides. This will ensure that the development area is better integrated into the S-Bahn network. Renaming the S-Bahn station into Adlershof-Johannisthal will contribute to making these changes more visible. In addition, the tram line expansion via Karl-Ziegler-Strasse, Hermann-Dorner-Allee and Gross-Berliner Damm to the S-Bahn station Adlershof will be completed in the same year. The expansion is currently entering the planning phase. The BVG is planning to begin construction in the second quarter of 2020; the total construction period is one year. The bus network will also be redesigned as part of the tram line expansion, says Wittwer. It is currently planned to increase the frequency of the bus line 164 to 10 minutes between Siriusstrasse in Alt-Glienicke and the S-Bahn station Adlershof.
Moreover, it is planned to build additional pedestrian and bike overpass bridges. The opening is scheduled for 2023. As an extension of Igo-Etrich-Strasse, the bridge will pass over the train tracks and the Adlergestell road. The main client is the State of Berlin, but Deutsche Bahn is co-financing the project with 1.6 million euros. Joachim Sichter of the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing suggested the bridge to resolve the area’s division by the Adlergestell road. The bridge will create a convenient link to Köllnische Heide and the Spree river for people that are new to Adlershof and Johannisthal and provide a secure way to school for young children. In total, there will be five ways to cross Adlergestell into the Science City, which are about 800 metres apart. At about 2 kilometres, the longest gap will be between Sterndamm and S-Bahn station Johannisthal. The new bridge has not yet been designed. However, preliminary sketches are currently being drawn up, says Witwer. Based on these sketches, the bridge will be about 120 metres long and have two intermediate supports. It will be flanked by 250-metre paths on each side.
Frank Wittwer lets us in on another key issue of traffic infrastructure in the development area’s northeast: the development of the property of the so-called Müller heirs. Covering an area of 214,000 square metres between Gerhard-Sedlmayr-Strasse, Gross-Berliner Damm and Segelfliegerdamm, the premises will soon be home to 1,800 new flats and, on 82,000 square metres, many new commercial properties. The area will be integrated into the public road network by 2025. Construction on flats and commercial properties will begin before that in some parts of the area.
By Sylvia Nitschke for Adlershof Journal