The concessionaire, in this case the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, can carry out such a project far faster and does not have to concern itself beforehand with financing or with maintenance once the project is in operation. And the Herren Tunnel also provided the city with the optimal solution in terms of traffic flow. The federal government was only prepared to finance a new bascule bridge – but not the tunnel Lübeck so desperately wanted. And the operating company likewise profits from a PPP project, as it can generate a long-term steady return on the capital it has employed.
The Herren Tunnel provided the city with an optimal solution
The Herren Tunnel is a trailblazer of privatesector solutions for traffic infrastructure in Germany. Additional projects are currently in the planning stage. “This could be just the beginning,” says Jürgen Schönwasser. He points to the pending road construction projects based on the socalled A-Model. Finally, Germany is also to have highway sections that are built and operated privately – primarily user-financed from the toll paid by trucks that use these routes. The competition for the first projects is now in full swing. Jürgen Schönwasser is optimistic about the concession model: "This system,which has proven itself in other places, will also be successful here in Germany."