Highway 6 (A 6) is the German segment of the European Road E 50, which leads from the Caspian Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. It connects the metropolitan regions of Nuremberg and Stuttgart and, along with the A 8, is the most important east-west link in southern Germany. The now high traffic load combined with a high volume of heavy goods traffic on this route required a six-lane expansion, in the course of which a new bridge construction and an expansion of the PWC facilities were also planned.
During preliminary planning in 2009, ANUVA prepared an environmental impact study with a comparison of variants. The study was based on faunistic mapping of avifauna and bats. In the course of further planning, ANUVA prepared the accompanying landscape management plan for the construction section Bretzfeld–Öhringen, contributing to the environmental impact assessment and to the examination of the effects with regard to the Water Framework Directive, as well as a species protection contribution and an FFH impact assessment. In addition to the environmental contributions to the section presented here, ANUVA has provided a number of other services for the widening of the A 6 between the Weinsberg interchange in Baden-Württemberg and Nuremberg in Bavaria (approx. 160 km). For example, a cross-section compensation concept for the approximately 65 km-long section in Baden-Württemberg, a feasibility study for the green bridge and expert opinion on fauna and species protection for the section Weinsberg, and the faunistic expert opinion for the section Kupferzell were elaborated. In Bavaria, ANUVA provided landscape planning support for the sections state border – Feuchtwangen and interchange Nuremberg South – interchange Nuremberg East. For the sections Lichtenau – Triebendorf and Triebendorf – Schwabach West the faunistic expert opinions were compiled.
In this section, the A 6 intersects two Natura 2000 reserves that could be particularly impaired by the bridge construction. The aim was to avoid as far as possible any encroachment on the Brettach, Ohrn and Maßholderbach watercourses. In addition, the A 6 is framed on both sides of this section by long stretches of highway groves. These woody plants are protected by law in Baden-Württemberg and mapping has shown that they are habitats of the strictly protected dormouse. In order to preserve the population, replacement habitats were planned along the highway that would reconnect to the copses on the road embankments after construction activities were completed and thus serve as source habitat for recolonization. Another challenge was presented as bat roosts identified in the hollow bodies of the bridge structures. To make the new bridges available as roosts again, cavities accessible to bats were designed into the abutments.