Road upgrades
Innsbruck 1964 provided the impetus for improvements to the city’s road network, which enhanced access to the city and region and triggered economic growth.
Innsbruck’s status as a thriving sports event, business, tourism and conference hub can be partly explained by the improvements made to its road network for the 1964 Olympic Winter Games. These improvements were made with the city’s long-term development in mind, bringing it into closer contact with nearby cities and increasing access and mobility in the Tirol region. This helped attract businesses, generate jobs and bring larger numbers of tourists to the city and region.
Innsbruck is a key transit point in central Europe and stands on the 36-kilometre Brenner Highway, which links the city with the Italian city of Modena. The first section of the highway opened in time for Innsbruck 1964 and features the 815m-long Europabrücke (Europe Bridge). Spanning the 700m-wide valley of the River Sill, the bridge remains an impressive symbol of the modernisation Innsbruck underwent in the 1960s and 70s.
Completed in 1971, the Brenner Highway continues to serve the city to this day, providing a vital link with Germany to the north and Italy to the south. It is, however, one of the most heavily used roads on the continent, a problem that will be alleviated by the construction of the 55km Brenner Base Tunnel. Due for completion in 2025, the tunnel will move freight traffic from road to rail, helping to reduce the highway’s environmental impacts.
The Brenner Highway cut traffic congestion in Innsbruck’s busy streets, as did the construction of the Südring, a ring road bypassing the city and featuring another bridge, the Olympiabrücke, which opened just before the Games. The city’s revamped road network required only minor renovation and upgrading work when it hosted the Games for a second time in 1976.