UNESCO report recommends the construction of a tunnel instead of a bridge in Dresden World Heritage site

• © UNESCO/N. Burke
• Dresden

The international mission of experts sent to review plans to build a bridge in the cultural landscape of the Dresden Elbe Valley (Germany) in early February is recommending that the plan be abandoned in the interest of preserving the outstanding universal value that warranted the inscription of the site on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2004.

After visiting the location of the bridge, meeting the parties concerned and studying existing plans, the experts concluded that a tunnel would have a lesser impact on the landscape.

The recommendations are contained in a report UNESCO is sending to the German authorities and to the 21 members of the World Heritage Committee, who will examine Dresden’s transportation plans during its next session in Québec, Canada, in July.

At its last meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2007, the Committee decided "to delete the property from the World Heritage List [...] in the event that the construction of the bridge has an irreversible impact on the outstanding universal value of the property."

“I welcome the recommendations of the technical mission to the World Heritage site,” said the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, “and I trust that a constructive consultation will follow leading to the preservation of the cultural landscape of the Dresden Elbe Valley.”

Christina Cameron, Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, said that “the identification of an alternative to the current bridge presents a valuable opportunity for the safeguarding of the Dresden Elbe Valley. The World Heritage Committee will be happy to give positive consideration to a new solution that might help retain this wonderful landscape on the World Heritage List.”

• Source:UNESCOPRESS
• 07-03-2008