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ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – One of Switzerland’s worst spots for traffic jams will get some breathing space, with the Federal Highway Office approving a plan to widen the road from four to six lanes over 12 kilometres of the A1. A 3,300 metre-long additional tube will be added to the Gubrist tunnel.
The project, at a cost of CHF940 million, covers several works: the Weiningen and Affoltern intersections will be redone, a 750 metre viaduc will be built at Katzensee, anti-noise devices are being installed and a new drainage system will be built.
The project has been contentious, particularly over covering the west end of the Gubrist tunnel entrance, which the highway department rejected but which the commune of Weiningen has demanded. Federal, city and village authorities are now involved in talks to find a solution without delaying start of the construction project.
In addition, 113 property owners objected to the price they were offered for the land they are obliged to cede for the project, but their objections were overruled.
Thomas Déruns
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chris McSorley’s message Monday 31 January to his team and supporters was grim: the acclaimed top forward for the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club, Thomas Déruns, 28 and Swiss, is moving to Bern. By Tuesday the club’s site sported a video that drew a large number of fans, with teammates’ reactions to Thomas leaving.
Déruns has been “one of its key players” for some 10 years, says McSorley, but the GSHC was obliged to let him move to SC Bern “in order to reduce the structural deficit of the club in the short and medium term if it cannot balance its budget which is amongst the four smallest of the League.” The player “has been in a position to negotiate a new contract for four or five seasons in the last few months,” McSorley’s statement notes. “The GSHC is no longer able in its current situation, to match the offers made by other clubs of the LNA (national league A).”
GSHC’s tight budget looked like it would get help from Geneva in the form of an improved and enlarged arena before the current 2010-2011 season opened, which would have let the team sell more VIP seats and get more sponsors. McSorley, who has been careful to speak well of Geneva authorities’ efforts to improve the aging (1958) Vernets arena, which has been in the political hot seat in Geneva politics, issued these remarks in a statement published on the team’s web site Monday:
Other stretches of Swiss autoroute are studying the Morges-Lausanne solution of adding 2 lanes during rush hour
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Projects such as the third rail line between Vaud and Geneva, considered urgent in the region but far down the long 20-year list of Swiss transport projects, will now be able, in exceptional cases, to get advance funding. The lower house of the Swiss parliament Tuesday joined the upper house in voting to extend CHF850 million in credit to the transport infrastructure fund, to avoid a cash flow crunch as projects become urgent ahead of their scheduled funding. The third rail line is one such exceptional case, with population and workforce growth in the region outstripping planning figures.
The fund was created in 2008 to finance special projects designed to reduce road traffic congestion in cities, larger urban areas and on the autoroutes.
Parliament also voted to spend CHF1.51 billion on 26 projects to improve transport in urban areas. Some CHF1.51 of the money goes to the most urgent projects to reduce traffic jams on autoroutes.
A1 heading into Lausanne, from Morges, three lanes as a temporary measure, January 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The problem of congested roads in regions where some of Switzerland’s worst traffic jams occur inched closer to a solution Friday, when a commission of the Swiss upper house of Parliament agreed to modify regulations governing how certain national road funds are spent.
The commission had asked for a report on how cantons would help fund projects in congested road areas, such as the stretch of A1 autoroute between Versoix and Geneva, and the A1/A9 roads around Lausanne, which routinely have heavy traffic buildups. The problems are expected to worsen in the next 10 years, with the Lake Geneva region one of the fastest growing in Switzerland.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The hottest change in the airline industry is the rapid move to BCBP, bar code boarding passes, whose use has nearly doubled in the past year. By the end of 2010 airports should have 100 percent BCBP coverage, meaning that airlines should be able to adopt this service if they want to, allowing anyone with any type of mobile phone to check in by showing the bar code from his or her phone: the end of the paper check-ins. The change is a particular boon for people who are traveling and who don’t have easy access to printers, possibly most airline passengers. Currently, 115 airlines use this and another 23 plan to.
Iata, at its annual media conference in Geneva Tuesday 15 December outlines some of the other improvements passengers will see in coming months, with the goal of moving people through airports faster.
