The Brenner route, one of the most important north-south connections in Europe, is currently under particular scrutiny. The reason for this is the complete reconstruction of the Lueg Bridge on the A13 motorway, just before the Brenner Pass. We have already reported on this in ourFood News in January.
During the construction work, the existing bridge will remain in operation to a limited extent and can usually only be driven on in one lane. For safety reasons, heavy goods vehicles will be shifted to the left-hand lane in order to relieve the pressure on structurally sensitive areas. As soon as both lanes are open on busy days, cars drive on the right-hand side. "The new traffic routing is currently working wonderfully," says Dr Korbinian Leitner, Head of the Traffic Department at the IHK for Munich and Upper Bavaria. He reports that the motorway operators on both the Austrian and German sides have also been satisfied with the development so far. The situation was stable into the second quarter - also due to the lower transport volume at the beginning of the year.
However, the restricted time corridor for transit traffic remains a problem. The Saturday driving ban from 7 a.m. - instead of Saturday afternoon as previously - is keeping haulage companies busy, but was introduced to relieve holiday traffic.
So far, there has been little evidence of a shift in freight transport to rail. Dr Korbinian Leitner: "Although rail is basically an alternative, many companies are not yet making greater use of it." He draws a positive interim conclusion: "ASFINAG, which is responsible for the Austrian motorway and motorway network, is doing a good job and keeping the axis open. The alternative would have been a complete closure to heavy goods traffic - that would have been the worst case scenario."
At the same time, the ADAC points out that border controls are currently causing traffic jams and delays anyway. Although the Munich Federal Police Directorate would like to minimise the disruption for delivery traffic and travellers, the increased presence is noticeable, according to the Homepage of the ADAC. In Freilassing, at the Saalach bridge near Salzburg, another fixed checkpoint was set up.

A stress test could also be imminent during the summer travel period, according to voices from the haulage industry.