Green space maintenance on the Munich motorway ring road Maintenance and development plan with grazing, grove maintenance, mowing and public relations, German Landscape Architecture Award 2005, appreciation

For the compensation areas created for the construction of the A99 federal motorway (approx. 200 ha of green areas, of which approx. 160 ha are nature conservation compensation and design areas), a maintenance and development plan (PEPL) was created on behalf of the Southern Bavarian Motorway Directorate (ABDS).
The compensation areas are subdivided into numerous sub-areas, which are lined up in a band on both sides of the motorway. Different development objectives have been defined for the individual areas, the fulfilment of which is largely dependent on future maintenance.
The concept and the associated implementation are based on four pillars:
grazing, mowing, woody plant care and public relations.

For the maintenance and use of dry sites, grazing with Merinoland sheep is carried out.
On wet areas and areas near the roadway, maintenance is carried out by mowing. This will take place at different intervals depending on the type of green space.
Trees adjacent to the road will be cut back, leaving individual well-developed trees. With the grove maintenance the development of stable and ecologically high-quality groves is secured in the long term.
In addition to the nature conservation measures, the compensation and design areas also fulfil important functions with regard to recreational use. In order to avoid conflicts, targeted visitor guidance is provided in heavily frequented areas.
The main objective is to optimally promote the development of the compensation and design areas via the proposed maintenance, so that the motorway can also take on biotope networking functions in addition to traffic functions. At the same time, a new economic field of activity and foothold is created for local agriculture in the context of landscape conservation.

AppreciationGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2005

Jury verdict: The implementation of compensation and replacement measures for project interventions already presents a particular problem or challenge in Germany - due to insufficient availability of quality land. Even more so, there is a lack of feasible, i.e. also financially viable maintenance measures and their follow-up control.

The present green space maintenance concept opens up innovative approaches as to how individual and often isolated compensation and replacement measures are to be networked.
The concept not only serves an ecologically meaningful biotope network system and extensive recreational use, but also simplifies the maintenance of compensation measures. In particular, the proposals for simple and cost-effective maintenance measures (grazing, woody plant care, mowing, etc.), as found and implemented here, are exemplary.