From the Saarbrücker Schloss, you can make a comparison between the riverside as it is now and what it will look like once the Stadtmitte am Fluss project has been completed.
	The Berliner Promenade, where the buildings turn their backs on you. The plan is to transform it into a lively area with numerous restaurants and terraces.

People are leaving the city
Saarbrücken used to be a flourishing industrial city but now it is slowly emptying. As in other German cities, the population is declining; slowly now, but it is expected that the process will accelerate. Tourist numbers are also declining and that is bad news for shopkeepers. Jana Lessiotis of GIU: 'More and more shops are closing down because there are not enough customers. And because there are fewer and fewer shops, people prefer to go shopping elsewhere: to cities nearby such as Metz and Luxembourg.'
Architects, urban planners, politicians and entrepreneurs wanted to break through this vicious circle and so they got together. They want to make the city centre more attractive so that Saarbrücken can compete again with other cities in the area. Daniel Roos of GIU: 'If we renovate the inner city, we can improve the position of the city and the quality of living. And that, in turn, can attract new jobs.'

A new centre for Saarbrücken
The River Saar flows straight through the city and that is a terrific advantage. It must be possible to use the Saar to make the centre attractive. On one bank, alongside the shopping area, there is the Berliner Promenade. At the moment, this is a rather unpleasant location. The buildings face away from the river. And there is a motorway on the other bank: once the pride of the post-war reconstruction effort. Saarbrücken now has a love-hate relationship with that road. It is the source of noise and air pollution; and it ruins what would otherwise be a charming view over the river. But at the same time, it is also the city's main access road.

Hans-Jürgen Koebnick, former mayor of Saarbrücken and now the chairman of the Förderkreis: 'It is really an ideal location'.
The A 620 with the Berliner Promenade in the background. Both are scheduled for upgrading in the Stadtmitte am Fluss project. This will make the centre of Saarbrücken more attractive, allowing it to compete with cities in the area.
The Alte Brücke

In order to make the inner city more appealing, the Berliner Promenade will have to be renovated and the road will have to go. Hans-Jürgen Koebnick, former mayor of Saarbrücken: 'The Berliner Promenade is on the sunny side of the river in front of a shopping area. It's an ideal location for sitting outside on a pavement terrace. But who wants to enjoy a drink or a romantic dinner with a view of a motorway? And there aren't even any restaurants at the moment.'

Not a plan for putting on the shelf
The idea is appealing: to provide the city with a positive impulse by building a tunnel and completely renovating the Berliner Promenade. But how do you convince politicians, administrators, investors and inhabitants that this is the only way to go?
Daniel Roos: 'This wouldn't be the first plan to be shelved. And the arguments have always been the same: a lack of money and too ambitious for Saarbrücken.' To prevent this idea getting shelved as well, the planners have been lobbying hard. They want to convince all the stakeholders.

Daniel Roos: 'From the very start, we started trying to establish support for the ideas. We had a lot of discussions – and I mean a lot – with professors, urban developers, architects, politicians and business people. And sure enough: those discussions generated broad support for the development of the initial idea. And we also organised a workshop with these people to collect even more ideas. Most of the ideas were so good that they were suitable for inclusion in the Stadtmitte am Fluss project. GIU coordinated the whole process, which resulted in a master plan for the city centre. Our plan is the first master plan for Saarbrücken.'

	Joachim Schwarz, a traffic planner for Stadtmitte am Fluss, is responsible for keeping traffic moving as much as possible during the construction of the tunnel
	Markus Ott of WPW Ingenieure explains how the tunnel can be built and what precautions have been taken against flooding

Anticipating objections
To get people enthusiastic and to deal with any objections in advance, the plan has already been worked out in an unusually detailed way. So it already provides answers to very many questions. For example, a complete traffic study has already been carried out for shopowners and inhabitants who may be worried that the tunnel will have a negative effect on access to the city. And there has also been a study of accessibility during the construction period. Joachim Schwarz, traffic planner: 'It will take three years to build the tunnel. Keeping traffic moving during that time will be a major challenge. Our aim is to keep two lanes open in both directions at all times. So we have broken down the construction of the tunnel into no fewer than sixteen phases.'
Another possible difficulty is the risk of flooding. The government is very concerned about the danger of flooding when the level of the river rises. This possibility has also been extensively investigated. Markus Ott, the head of the project planner association, and a water expert: 'The current road is flooded for a number of days about twice a year. Once the tunnel has been built, that will be impossible, so the water will have to go somewhere else. Computer models have been used to determine where the water will go and solutions have been thought up for all the resulting risks.'
Working out the plan in such detail has indeed made it possible to deal with a number of technical objections. But both the government authorities and the residents remain concerned that the plan will be much too expensive.

Not all the inhabitants of Saarbrücken are convinced that the expensive project will pay off in the long term. They are worried about economic cutbacks in the future.
Cycling along the Saar

No to schools, yes to a tunnel?
The government authorities (the city, the land and the national government) do not have a lot of money for projects of this kind. But a lot of money is needed: the budget for the project is almost 154 million euros. The local government is now in favour of the plans but for the purposes of financing it is important for the national and the land authorities to be convinced as well.
Many inhabitants of Saarbrücken are worried that the finances will be too much for the city. 'We'll be shutting down schools and theatres because a lack of money', is a frequently heard comment. So the people of Saarbrücken are not unequivocally in favour of the expensive plans to renovate the centre.
The planners are still working hard to win minds and souls. They hope they can show everyone that, even though the project costs a lot of money now, it will pay off in the long term in terms of a much more pleasant city to live in, with more and better jobs. A 'Förderkreis' was established in 2004 to improve the chances of success for the new Saarbrücken. This is a group of prominent people who fully support the Stadtmitte am Fluss plans. The chairman is the former mayor, Hans-Jürgen Koebnick. Olav Novak, a businessman and a member of the Förderkreis: 'We are having intensive discussions with politicians at various levels. We also want to make the public more enthusiastic and so we are distributing flyers and posters throughout the city.'

	‘Advertising’ for Stadtmitte am Fluss in the Bahnhofstrasse.

Who can object to that?
For the development of the plans, the initiators received subsidies from, among others, ReUrbA2. But the financing from ReUrbA2 will have to stop after 2005 and it is highly debatable whether it will be possible to obtain financing for the implementation of the project before then.
Hans-Jürgen Koebnick: 'The fact that the plans have been worked out in such detail is of course a big help in convincing people.'
The posters in the city are promising: a magnificent green area where the traffic now races past. And you can see all those inviting pavement terraces on the Berliner Promenade on the other side of the river. Who can object to that?