The English Garden is divided into a north and a south part by the 4-lane Isarring, a section of the Middle Ring road around Munich. The lowering of the Isarring will reunite the two halves of the park.

The English Garden, centrally located in the Bavarian state capital of Munich, is an important listed landscape park, is part of several protected landscape areas and is of great ecological importance. With a size of approx. 375 ha, the park is located on the western bank of the Isar near the Schwabing district.

Based on the initial ideas of a citizens’ initiative, the City of Munich is pursuing the planning for the new construction of the English Garden tunnel. The project objective of the 6-lane extension of the Middle Ring road goes hand in hand with the reunification of the two halves of the park and requires the lowering of the Isarring into a tunnel with a length of 390 m. In addition to the urban planning advantages and the positive effects on the environment, the project also complies with the protection of historical monuments.

It is being investigated whether the replacement construction of the John F. Kennedy Bridge should be carried out at the same time, in view of the fact that the construction of the tunnel together with the bridge over the Isar River is expected to have advantages and synergy effects, particularly in terms of traffic management over the construction period. The construction scheduling and the logistics are paramount for the planning of this inner-city project.

In July 2018, the construction department of the City of Munich awarded the design services to the working group “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Planung Tunnel Englischer Garten”. In this working group, the Bernard Gruppe is responsible not only for the technical and commercial management of the road design, but also for the tunnel design by cut-and-cover construction method and for the relocation of waters. Until the summer of 2020, in addition to the conceptual design, the final and permit application design will also be prepared by the consortium; further design phases are optionally included.

Christian Heger, BERNARD Gruppe