A12 motorway (Switzerland)

Template: Infobox trunk road / Maintenance / CH -A

Canton:

  • Vaud Canton of Vaud
  • Canton of Fribourg Fribourg
  • Canton of Bern Berne

The Swiss Highway 12 leads from the A9 Vevey along the Fribourg Pre-Alps via Freiburg to the A1 near Bern, making it an important compound of Bern in western Switzerland; they will be the main mode of transport in the canton of Fribourg and crosses the Canton area on the diagonal of Châtel- Saint- Denis in the southwest Flamatt in the Northeast. Since 1981, the entire section of highway is open to traffic. The service area of La Gruyère is a scenic location above the Lac de la Gruyère with an adjoining hotel.

Course

Your starting point take the A12 at the junction of La Veyre the A9 on a plateau (500 m above sea level. M. ) above Vevey. During the first 5.5 km, the highway rises along the eastern flank of the Veveyse up to 820 m above sea level. M., and forms a sharp S-curve. This section of highway with an average gradient of 5.8 % and a maximum grade of about 6% is one of the steepest stretches of highway in the Swiss national road network. After the slope portion of the valley section of the Veveyse de Fégire is crossed with a high bridge. Once arrived on the plateau of Haute Veveyse at the foot of the Alps, only small differences in height to be overcome. The culminating point is located at an altitude of 866 m above sea level. M. Prayoud the hamlet northeast of Chatel -Saint- Denis. Here the main European watershed between the Rhône is happening ( with the catchment area of ​​the Veveyse), and the Rhine ( with the catchment areas of Broye and Sarine ).

At a length of 15 km, the A12 now runs at an altitude of about 800 m above sea level. M. before reaching the Gruyère region and the basin of bull. Then she leads between the Lac de la Gruyère and the heights of Marly to the north. For the purpose of noise control two Tagbautunnels were built in Gumefens and in Avry- devant- Pont. North of the latter is the most important building of the A12, the long Viaduc du Lac de la Gruyère, which was created in the years 1974 to 1979 around 2 km away and spans the western side of the valley as well as two short arms of the Lac de la Gruyère in a sweeping curve.

Then in the Molasseplateau the Fribourg Mittelland occurs, the highway, in several stages a height difference is overcome by slightly more than 100 m. After the bridge over the Glane agglomeration Freiburg is bypassed to the west and northwest by hilly terrain, before a further bridge over the Schiffenensee (also called Pont de la Madeleine, in reference to the hermitage in the sandstone rocks little next to the motorway bridge ) the Sarine river trench and thus the language border is crossed.

As a result, the traffic axis across the little plateau in relief at Duedingen and Wünnewil runs. With a bridge at Flamatt, which has a slope of 4%, the plateau is left and reached the valley of the scythe. After that, the A12 runs through the relatively densely populated and lined with industrial and commercial buildings Wangental to the western border of the city of Bern. After the southern bypass of the city district Bümplizstrasse the plateau is crossed with a nearly 1 km long bridge before the motorway at junction Weyermannshaus joins the A1.

Engineering structures

The A12 motorway has due to the hilly pre-alpine topography in various engineering structures, especially bridges. The most important of these are ( in the sequence from Vevey to Bern ):

  • Viaduc de Fégire: 512 m long, 90 m high,
  • Tunnel de Gumefens: 340 m long, these constructions
  • Tunnel d' Avry: 170 meters long, these constructions
  • Viaduc du Lac de la Gruyère: 2,044 m long, 33 pillars with a pillar height of 2-85 m
  • Viaduc de la Glane: 200 m long, 40 m high
  • Pont de la Madeleine ( bridge over the Schiffenensee ): 320 m long, with medium water storage level of the lake, 41 m above the water surface
  • Highway bridge Flamatt: 648 m long, 4 % slope, via residential and commercial quarters of Flamatt
  • These constructions Thörishaus: 110 m long
  • Viaduct Weyermannshaus: 912 m long, 10 to 15 m high

Historical Aspects

The leadership of a motorway through the Canton of Fribourg has already been studied in the 1950s. Concrete plans on the lines of the first sections have been around since the early 1960s. First, the distance walked between Corpataux and Matran the end of 1963 in the consultation, a year later, the northeastern continuation of the highway to Duedingen. 1966 respectively 1967, the sections were approved by the former Transport and Energy Department of Economic Affairs of the Federation and began soon after the construction.

On 31 July 1971, put into operation with the section of Duedingen Corpataux after the first section of the A12 motorway. The city of Freiburg thus received a bypass for transit traffic. Initially, only one carriageway was created by Matran to Corpataux, the second followed about seven years later. This was the last section between Vaulruz and the A9 Vevey, was opened at the end of 1981.

With the continuous A12 since the end of 1981 there was a motorway link between the national roads of German Switzerland and those of western Switzerland. As a result, the distance from Bern on the A12 and the A9 developed to Lausanne to the A1 for about 20 years to the main transit route between Zurich and Geneva. However, the A12 was susceptible, respectively during the winter because of the steep gradients and long sections at an altitude of 700 m for ice and snow-covered roads.

When the A1 was also taken in continuous operation in the year 2001, some of the traffic shifted back to the originally planned as a transit route highway. This is very well documented by the census points of Wünnewil and Bulle ( overland routes ), where in 2000 the average daily volume of 29,000 vehicles in 2002 to just over 22,000 vehicles (around 20% less than two years earlier ) were measured. The highest traffic densities on the A12 were 2004 registered in the Freiburg area with an average daily traffic of 29,000 vehicles.

The full opening of the A12 motorway gave particular the regions of Fribourg and Bulle and the structurally weak Haute Veveyse significant economic driver and led her to the easy accessibility of the tourist region Greyerzerland both of Lake Geneva and Bern.

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