Where postal routes once criss-crossed the region and ensured development, today good roads, railways and waterways are indispensable for an attractive business location, for companies and residents.
For East Brandenburg, efficient transport infrastructure plays a special role due to the trans-European transport corridors that run through here: the transit routes here are not only an expression of the region's central location, but also mean an enormous traffic load.
An alliance consisting of the independent city of Frankfurt (Oder), the districts of Märkisch-Oderland and Oder-Spree and the East Brandenburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK Ostbrandenburg) is therefore calling for significantly greater recognition for the region from the Federal Ministry of Transport.
"What we need now for our region is something like the Transport Infrastructure Planning Acceleration Act for the East at the beginning of the 1990s," says Robert Radzimanowski, Head of Regional Policy at the East Brandenburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce. "At that time, regional planning procedures were abolished, short deadlines applied for approvals and the possibility of legal action was reduced to one instance."
In particular, the east-west routes - such as the Ostbahn railway or the federal highway 12 - as well as federal highway 1 should be expanded quickly in order to do justice to their traffic significance.
On behalf of the alliance, Sascha Gehm, 1st Deputy Mayor of the Oder-Spree district:
"The federal government has promised significantly more money for infrastructure. We are now demanding that this money must also reach the Oderland-Spree region."
From the perspective of the District of Märkisch-Oderland, Economic Councillor Rainer Schinkel says:
"Some of our regional roads are also in a catastrophic state. They need more attention and simply more money. The state of Brandenburg must finally develop a concept for how to tackle this glaring deficit in the long term."
The waterways have the potential to shift traffic. The Oder-Spree Canal is an important east-west connection that crosses the region. One barge can replace up to 100 trucks, but the Fürstenwalde lock, which has still not been upgraded, is holding up the important shift to the waterway.
Wolfgang Rump, Head of the Oderland-Spree Regional Planning Office, cites good examples of the rapid implementation of infrastructure projects from the area around the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide:
"In order to meet the increased traffic requirements here, the plant connection via the L38 was extended. The construction of the new train station for Fangschleuse sets new standards in infrastructure expansion."
Downloads & Links
Further information
Background and other specific projects in the East Brandenburg Infrastructure Atlas: http://ihk-obb.de/atlas
The IHK Ostbrandenburg is the largest representative body for the economy between Schwedt and Eisenhüttenstadt, between Berlin and the Oder.