From late September, still during Oktoberfest, the municipal utility company SWM is opening a cascade of construction sites to expand the city’s electricity grid. The works will continue until early December, and throughout this period access to homes will be ensured by temporary footbridges rather than by full street closures, as was the practice previously.
What exactly residents will notice
The nature of the inconvenience will vary by district. In Au-Haidhausen, on Innere Wiener Straße just past the Gasteig, one-way traffic will be introduced for cyclists and motorists. In Moosach, on Hanauer Straße, the restrictions will affect – however trite this may sound – only pedestrians. The roadway, and in particular the cycle lanes, will not be affected by the closure. On the other streets, the works concern individual sections rather than closure of their entire length. In Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, this concerns the area around house numbers 110 and 112 on Dachauer Straße, and in Ramersdorf-Perlach, the intersection of Wolfratshauser Straße with Kölblstraße and Abentheuerstraße.
Full list of districts and streets affected by the roadworks
Maxvorstadt – Brienner Straße
- Schwabing-West – Fürstenbergstraße
- Au-Haidhausen – Innere Wiener Straße (first section past the Gasteig, one-way traffic)
- Neuhausen-Nymphenburg – Dachauer Straße, house numbers 110 and 112 and opposite them
- Moosach – Hanauer Straße (pedestrians only)
- Schwabing-Freimann – Clemensstraße with adjoining Destouchesstraße and Moltkestraße
- Bogenhausen – Fritz-Lutz-Straße
- Ramersdorf-Perlach – Franz-Beringer-Weg, Ludwig-Linsert-Straße, Wolfratshauser Straße
- Pasing-Obermenzing – Nimmerfallstraße, Skapinellistraße, Fritz-Bernewitz-Straße
Feldmoching-Hasenbergl – Pankratzstraße, Weitlstraße
The tenth district on this list, Feldmoching-Hasenbergl, located in the north of the city, stands apart from the other construction sites, which are concentrated closer to the centre and south of Munich. This shows that the grid expansion is not being carried out in isolated spots but across the whole city at once.
Why this is happening now
Responsibility for Munich’s electricity grid lies with SWM Infrastruktur, a subsidiary of Stadtwerke München, which carries out around a thousand construction works in public spaces across the city every year. This is how the electricity, internet, and other municipal networks supplying more than a million customers with electricity, telephone and internet connections, heating, gas, and water are maintained and expanded. The current wave of construction works fits within this regular practice, but stands out in that ten sites are being opened almost simultaneously, and this coincides in timing with Oktoberfest – a period when traffic in the city is already denser than usual. But Munich residents have already grown accustomed to the illogical steps taken by the city authorities, and greet each new decision by officials in silence.
Based on information from SWM
