Bundesautobahn 17


is an autobahn in Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It links Dresden to the Czech border where the D8 continues to Prague. Construction began in 1998, and connects to the Prague. The road is a fairly new contribution to the German autobahn-system, with its first stretch opened in 2001 and the last in 2006.

History

The first plans of the route were conceptualized as Strecke 72 in 1938, to connect Dresden and Prague. In Dresden, both a south-western variant, as well as the north-eastern variant over the Dresdener Heide and Pirna was planned. The later was decided in 1940, but there was no concrete work due to the war.
Based on the pre-war planning in the GDR by the end of 1960s, the connection to Prague was again envisaged. End of the 1970s, a southern route, similar to today, was decided. This project came about concrete planning, probably for cost reasons, but not beyond.
After the reunification, the German government decided that due to the increased truck traffic on the federal highway 170, construction becomes even more urgent. Building on the existing plans, various routes west of Dresden were designed, of which a relatively near-urban variant was adopted. The section from Pirna to the state border, however, was planned further to the west for reasons of landscape protection, as the original route would have touched the Saxon Switzerland National Park region.
The name A 17 was earmarked for another highway in the early 1990s. This federal highway 17 was to lead southeast from Bautzen to Zittau and on to the Czech Republic. There she would have had connection to the D 35. On this route, the federal highway 178 was realized in sections. In Zittau a triangle with the also not built Federal Highway 18 to Cottbus was provided. Today's A 17 to Prague should be run as part of the Federal Highway 13.
Against the construction of the highway formed after the turn of a network of several citizens' initiatives and environmental groups, while above all the Bundestag, the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Saxon cabinet, the project was pushed at the urging of the economy. A city-cutting variant of the A 17 was rejected by the Dresden City Council majority and repeatedly, as he feared, among other things, unacceptable noise and air pollution. Even the then mayor of Dresden Herbert Wagner failed with his veto.
Then a citizens' initiative for the construction of the A 17 was founded, which initiated a referendum for the construction of the A 17 together with parts of the Dresden CDU-Stadtspitze. On November 5, 1995, about 50% of the Dresden electorate took part in this referendum. Of these, around 2/3 voted in favor of the construction of the city-cutting variant.
It goes through the environmental impact study, to prevent damage to the habitat during the construction of the expressway. The hills are not required to be flattened:
The first part of first construction phase goes from Autobahndreieck Dresden-West to junction Dresden-Gorbitz. This 3.6 km long route was built from August 1998, released on 8 October 2001 and cost about 53.6 million euros. The feeder to Dresden, the Coventrystraße, was expanded from March 2007 four-lane. A local bypass for Kesselsdorf in the course of the B 173 was under construction from 2009 to 2011. As a feeder to Freital the State Road 36 was relocated and expanded. The name "Coventrystraße" is named after the British town, Coventry, formerly named Hermann-Matern-Straße, which is named after Hermann Matern, the SED minister and the honorary of Dresden.
The second part of first construction phase goes from the junction Dresden-Gorbitz to Dresden-Südvorstadt. The 8.6 kilometer longo route cost $286 million Euros. 87% of the costs were accounted for by the tunnel-bridge tunnel construction over Plauenschen Grund and the Weisseritz between Dölzschen and Coschütz. Here, a meter of tunnel tube cost about 40,000 euros. The construction of this part started in the spring of 2000. Also on this part of the route is the tunnel Altfranken. The opening of this second section was postponed after a cable fire in the Coschütz tunnel from October 2004 to December 22, 2004. As early as autumn 2005, extensive repair work in the tunnels was necessary to eliminate construction defects.
The first part of the second construction phase goes from the junction Dresden-Südvorstadt to Dresden-Prohlis. The three-kilometer route cost 45 million euros and was released on 25 October 2004, before the first phase of construction was completed. From the AS Dresden-Prohlis a new feeder to the then B 172 was built to relieve Kauscha and Dresden-Nickern from traffic. This bypass leads as S 191 over Goppeln and Rippien to the B 170 in Bannewitz.
The remaining portion of the second construction phase goes from the junction Dresden-Prohlis to Pirna is 9.9 kilometres long and was released in 22 July 2005. The construction costs amounted to 113 million euros. At the opening date, only the northern side of the Lockwitztal Bridge was completed. It was released on both sides on 13 December 2005. A feeder was built by the AS Heidenau, on the one hand to the B 172 and 2007 on the other hand between Borthen and Röhrsdorf and further in the direction of Wittgensdorf. The AS Pirna is located near Dohna, from where the B 172a was built four-lane to Pirna.
From the connection point, Pirna to the Czech border is 19.3 kilometers. The construction was officially started on December 8, 2004, and work on the bridges has been ongoing since the spring of 2004. He cost about 154 million euros. On December 21, 2006, the motorway from Dresden to the border and on the Czech side the continuation as D 8 to Ústí nad Labem for traffic was released.

Location

The A 17 is one of three autobahns that have one of their end points at the Bundesautobahn 4 near Dresden. The other two are the Bundesautobahn 13 at the northern Dresden autobahn triangle and the Bundesautobahn 14 at the Nossen autobahn triangle.
The A 17 begins at the western Dresden autobahn triangle, generally follows the edge of the city to the south, passing the towns of Heidenau and Pirna until it reaches the border between Germany and the Czech Republic at the Ore Mountains, where it ends. From there the D8 continues to Prague.

Features

Although the A 17 is only 45 km long, it has quite a lot of larger bridges and tunnels compared to other German autobahns. These are:
The designation of A 17 was originally given to a post-reunification Autobahn corridor planned to run from the A 4 near Bautzen to the Polish border at Zittau. Planning for this incarnation of the A 17 was shelved in the 1990s before any fixed route for this Autobahn was established, and the designation was given instead to the southernmost section of the A 13.