Bundesautobahn 36


Bundesautobahn 36 is an autobahn in Germany. It was established on January 1, 2019, from the Bundesautobahn 395 and parts of the Bundesstraße 6.
The highway is collectively known as Nordharzautobahn due to the route being parallel to the Harz mountains from Vienenburg to Bernburg.

History

In March 1926, a route between Seesen and Halberstadt north of the Harz mountains was first suggested as part of a greater network in Germany. More detailed plannings of parts of today's route reach back to April 1953, when a planning office in Brunswick recommended a highway-like route between Braunschweig and Bad Harzburg; this route was built between 1972 and 1994 as A 395 and replaced the B 4 along its way. This part wasn't considered a part of A 26 until discussions about upgrading the highway-like Bundesstraße 6 between Vienenburg interchange and Bernburg interchange emerged in 2017 and were officially realized on January 1, 2019, leading to the renaming of the A 395 and B 6 to A 36.
The original planning of the A 36 considered a different route: In 1972, the highway was first named as A 106 and supposed to connect Bielefeld, Lage, Hamelin, Alfeld, Goslar, and Bad Harzburg to the Inner German border. If built, this route would today connect the A 2 with a hypothetical A 35 south of Hamelin in direction of Hanover, the A 7, and the A 369, not including the former B 6 route to the A 14.
A second planning from 1976 designated the route from Bielefeld to Hamelin as a part of the A 35, leaving the highway from Hamelin to Bad Harzburg under the official name A 36. This last official plan was the base for the later renaming, considering the B 6 as the eastward continuation of the suggested highway. This plan was eventually abandoned in 1980, with only a minor route east of the A 2 and west of the recent A 369 being realized for the purpose of being part of a major highway.

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