New law on road financing: More power and money for Autobahn GmbH

The federal government wants to finance road construction more with private capital in the future and make Autobahn GmbH eligible for credit. On Wednesday, the cabinet approved a corresponding bill from Transport Minister Steffen Bilger (CDU). The federally owned company should be allowed to take out loans on the capital market from 2027. In addition, part of the revenue from the truck toll will flow directly to it from 2028.

So far, construction work has been financed from the budgets for transport and defense as well as from the special fund for infrastructure. In the future, “necessary renovations and important new construction projects will be implemented more quickly,” said Bilger on Wednesday in Berlin.

Until now, half of the revenue from the truck toll was earmarked for investments in federal highways, but these investments were made through the federal government - the other part has so far benefited the more climate-friendly rail system.

In its coalition agreement, the black-red federal government had already decided to change this again, i.e. to invest money that was collected on the roads solely in the road infrastructure and not in other modes of transport.

According to Transport Minister Bilger, the federal government collects around 4.5 billion euros annually from truck tolls. According to Toll Collect GmbH, a state-owned company responsible for setting up and operating truck toll collection systems, revenue has recently increased significantly: in 2024 it was 13 billion euros. (nbn)

However, this also fueled fears that Autobahn GmbH would soon be able to easily build new, climate-damaging highways. Jens Hilgenberg, head of transport policy at the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND), is calling for an earmark to be incorporated into the law: additional money should only flow into the renovation of the dilapidated motorway bridges.

Reinhard Koettnitz, professor of road traffic design at the University of Dresden, does not believe that new routes will be created on a large scale. But he also says: “Autobahn GmbH would be well advised to invest the funds in the maintenance of the bridges” and that the past renovation backlog must be resolved.

However, Hilgenberg also ensures that the law gives Autobahn GmbH more power. In the future, this would only have to coordinate with the Federal Ministry of Transport as to which projects would be implemented - the Bundestag committees for budget and transport were largely left out. The draft law will now be sent to the federal states and then to the Bundestag.