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Abandoned main road

lip

lip

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Messages
3,531
Location
Switzerland
Car(s)
Renault Twizy
A very unusual sight in Switzerland.

This road through the steep Rongellen gorge is called "Das verlorene Loch" (the lost hole). This part of the treck over the alps was used as early as 1500 BC. Later it was used by the Romans as a trade path. Enlarged to a road in 1821, rebuilt to a main road 1958, but abandoned since 1996 because of the new and modern autobahn and main road tunnels nearby. The road is now closed for motorised traffic, but is still open to cyclists and hikers. The use of the road is at one's own risk.

As you can see the road is still somehow maintained, because at some parts the grass on the road sides was freshly cut the day I was there. But the damage of stone falling and landslides are very notable too. At some parts the crash barriers are already smashed to pieces, and the road has lost half of her width.



Nature taking over


From now on I will visit this road section once a year to document the decline. Should'nt keep long until the road isn't save anymore and in a few years the road will be completly gone.

Greetings, lip
 
We have something very similar (well, as similar as you can get on this side on the pond) here in Oregon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Columbia_River_Highway

It was actually based on Switzerland's Axenstrasse.

Mitchell_Point_tunnel_(The_World%27s_Work).jpg


Oneonta_tunnel_(The_World%27s_Work).jpg
426px-HAER_HCRH_OR-36-L-1.jpg


Vistahouse.jpg
 
avanti said:
wow, would love to ride there! Can I go with my motorcycle or is it strictly bicycles and feet..?

could you put it on a map for me, like google maps?
Click to expand...

Here:

Orange=Autobahn tunnel
Yellow=Main road tunnel
White=Abandoned main road

The road is now closed for cars and motorcycles. It is still driveable for a motorcycle, but I will advise against it, because at the exact place where this old road merges into the newly built one, the swiss police make random road side controls. And I don't think they would like to see you coming up the footpath (can be seen on my last pictures) on your motorcycle. :mrgreen:

Greetings, lip
 
I wanna go there. :eek:
 
Awesome pictures. Looks like fun. I'd love to Cycle through there. :D
 
More abandoned stuff:
I like the strange sad/creepy feeling such places are emitting.

This is the story of the "Restaurant Walensee" at the south border of Lake Walen in Switzerland. Made a short visit today.

Built in the early 1980's, this was a very busy and scenic place for some time. Open 365 days of the year. The uppermost floor was even a little hotel with a few rooms. During my childhood, this restaurant was always a stopping place for a meal while my family and I were underway for the usual weekend adventure in our car.

The road under the restaurant is part of the swiss autobahn network, but because of the natural space problem between the lake and the steep rock wall, it was only built as a single carriageway with autobahn status. The speed limit was/is only 80km/h. Soon enough the massive increase of traffic with cars and lorrys clogged this bottleneck up, and traffic jams became a daily event. And one car with a breakdown, and the road came to a halt anyway...

To sort the problem and to expand the road nevertheless to a normal full 4 lane dual carriageway, a two lane tunnel has been constructed for the whole lenght of the lake (see lower orange line on google earth pic) carrying the traffic in one direction, giving both lanes of the old road free for traffic into the other direction.

But this meant cutting 50% of the guests for the Restaurant Walensee away. Furthermore, a new Restaurant/Service Station has been built only 8 kilometers away, at a spot where all 4 lanes are connected again.

Since the Restaurant was only accessible from the autobahn or from the lake, cycle and hiking paths had been built to attract more costumers, but to no avail. The Restaurant Walensee ran out of business. This was around 8 or 10 years ago. Nothing has happend since.

Google earth location:


Pics:














Some grafitti had been removed in the underpass but otherwise no damage or vandalism has occured in all those years since the closure. Welcome to switzerland. ;)

Greetings, lip
 
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Thanks for the link WillDAQ, but there is a little problem with that...



Greetings, lip
 
Update:

Visited the abandoned main road (the one seen in the first post) again today because I was near that place anyway and had some spare time.

I was surprised too see the first part of the road still in a somewhat maintained state:
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/1_begin.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/2_road.JPG

But a short bit further up the look changed to what I had expected:
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/3_dissused_1.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/3_dissused.JPG

Yikes:
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/4_creepy.JPG

Now, that's just properly creepy:
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/5_creepy.JPG

And after the tunnel:
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/6_upper_road.JPG

Steep rock at one side of the road, and it's a long way down on the other:
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/7_long_way_down.JPG

At last I squeeze in some selfshot like those professional urban explorers do. Note that my "tool and survival kit"
consisted simply out of a scarf. - Well, one has the begin somewhere. :lol:
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2009/12/07/7_selfshot.JPG

You have to bare in mind abandoned stuff like this is very rare in Switzerland. We don't have large abandoned buildings, or industry or military or mining facilitys around here. Hence my puny fascination with this road.

Greetings, lip
 
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