Germany’s fourth largest political party, Alliance 90/The Greens, is calling on the country’s Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer to release the A49 expansion contract in a bid to strike down the move.
The €1.3bn project in the state of Hesse recently reached financial close, with a Strabag and Meridiam led consortium to deliver 31km section and operate and maintain a 62km stretch for 30 years.
“The public has a right to know what the minister has signed for billion-dollar contracts,” Sven-Christian Kindler, a Green member of the Bundestag, told local media outfit Tagesspiegal. “The fact is: not the state of Hesse can stop the PPP project A49 now, only the federal government. Minister Scheuer is still reluctant and is sticking to the pointless motorway project.
“The billions in contracts for PPP projects belong in the public eye and not in the safe of the Federal Minister of Transport.”
The Greens are currently in a coalition with the governing CDU party in the state of Hesse, and this project is seen as a “credibility dilemma” due to potential environmental impacts.