The Berliner Museumsinsel will not be transformed into a pedestrian zone, but rather a route for construction traffic until 2037, according to documents from the Federal Agency for Building and Town Planning, as reported by the “Spiegel” magazine. The ground street that runs across the Museumsinsel has been planned as a pedestrian zone for decades in order to make it more attractive for tourists. However, this would have delayed the restoration of the Pergamon Museum by up to ten months and increased the costs by 4.5 million euros. Construction vehicles require the street: it is “an indispensable essential part of the uninterrupted and anytime access to the construction site with heavy vehicles” the documents state. Therefore, the responsible parties exerted pressure on the Berlin district of Mitte and the Berlin Senate Administration for Environment. They decided that the pedestrian zone should only be established after the museum’s restoration, which is not expected to be completed until 2037 at the earliest. Originally, it was planned to restore the Pergamon Museum by 2010. However, the construction work did not begin until 2013.
Museum Island Pedestrian Zone Delayed Until 2037 Due to Construction Traffic Concerns
