From left, Command Sgt. Maj. Larry Addington, U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden command sergeant major, Wolfgang Schnitzer, director of Landesbetrieb Bau und Immobilien Hessen, Col. Todd J. Fish, USAG Wiesbaden commander, and Lt. Col. John H. McNamara, deputy commander, Europe District, US Army Corps of Engineers, officially open the new access control point for USAG Wiesbaden's Hainerberg complex. The new ACP will replace the two current gates when it begins operations May 13. (Emily Jennings/U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden)
WIESBADEN, Germany — U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden officially opened a new $3.5 million gate for its Hainerberg facilities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.
Though the gate is officially complete, final checks and ongoing construction of a turn lane on the nearby B455 highway mean the it is not expected to be in operation until May 13, said Jacob Corbin, a spokesman for USAG Wiesbaden. At that time, the current two gates on the other side of the base will be closed and traffic rerouted to the new facility.
Hainerberg is home to the garrison’s commissary, exchange, movie theater, gas station and three DODEA-Europe schools, as well as hundreds of housing units.
“Based on a traffic study in 2014, the Hainerberg (gate) is designed for 1,870 vehicles per day equally apportioned to in- and outbound traffic,” said Kai Eberle, a civil engineer with the USAG Wiesbaden public works. “There will be two inbound lanes for (cars) and one inbound lane with a search area for trucks, as well as one outbound lane for all traffic.”
The project, a joint venture between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Landesbetrieb Bau and Immobilien Hessen, took 13 months to complete. An independent project by the city of Wiesbaden to expand a nearby intersection resulted in frequent traffic jams over the months, something USAG Wiesbaden commander Col. Todd Fish acknowledged.
“For almost a decade, U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden has been almost continuously under construction, and the strain of construction has probably not been felt anywhere more than here on Hainerberg,” Fish said. “While it has been difficult at times, the opening of this new access control point will help relieve some of that stress for members of our community who live and work here”
stoutamire.dan@stripes.com Twitter: @DKS_Stripes
