Park Motorway A42
View from the Emscher river to the Bottrop Tetraeder / Photo: INDEED/ Simon Bierwald
Any idea what an "ear park" is? Or a "park service station"? A drive along the A42 motorway takes you through the northern Ruhr area and to the answers to these questions. The A42 is being refurbished, but in a rather special way.
The Landesbetrieb für Strassenbau NRW (Regional Highways Department.NRW) and the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Parkautobahn" (Park Motorway Working Group) are taking the opportunity offered by the European Capital of Culture to inject some creativity into the motorway reconstruction project. From 2010, some unusual things will be done along the motorway to create an Emscher landscape theme park and turn the A42 into a "Park Experience Route".
Up to 80,000 vehicles pound along the motorway between Duisburg and Dortmund every day, and hardly anyone notices the attractions on either side of the road. This is hardly surprising, given that only a few motorists are aware that they are driving through one of the most unusual park landscapes in the world. For some 30 kilometres, the A42 motorway runs parallel to the river Emscher and the Rhine-Herne Canal, cutting right through the heart of the Emscher Landscape Park and passing some of its highlights en route: The Tetrahedron in Bottrop, the Oberhausen Gasometer and the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park are right next to the road.
The re-design of the A42 is all about blending this road into an urban landscape. A new strategy has been devised to "green up" the motorways, combining aesthetics, ecology and safety to greater effect. Viewing panels will be opened up between the trees and shrubs to reveal the attractions along the route. On the slip roads at the Castrop-Rauxel junction, known as the "Ears", an "Ear Park" has been created for the enjoyment of motorists, using typical parkland plants. Signs pointing out the landscape park and other landmarks aim to provide variety and information for the motorist.
The design of the noise barriers will be harmonised as part of the rejuvenation process, prominent entrance and exit gateways will mark the start and end of the motorway at Dortmund/Castrop-Rauxel and Duisburg, and "park service stations" will appear at the Schalke and Bottrop junctions. There are no fuel pumps here, but instead information is provided on the Capital of Culture, giving plenty of reasons to park the car, hire a bicycle and go off and explore the landscape park.
The first building blocks of the park motorway will be in place in 2010, although the project is geared primarily towards the future and will really come into its own during the course of the next twenty years.
all year
Federal motorway A42 between Castrop-Rauxel and Moers/Kamp-Lintfort
Mon - Sun, all day
Admission free
Partners: Riparian cities, Regionalverband Ruhr, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neues Emschertal, Landesbetrieb Straßen.NRW, Landesinitiative StadtBauKultur NRW, RUHR.2010 and MBV NRW, MUNLV NRW, Federal Ministry of Transport