Marketplace opened to traffic
16.12.2022 – As announced, the market square was opened to traffic on December 15. This means that Offenbach's city center is once again as easily accessible by car as before.
Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke and City Councillor Paul-Gerhard Weiß, Head of Planning and Construction as well as Order and Safety, symbolically opened the barriers in the morning and cleared the road. At the same time, they pointed out the new speed limit of a maximum of 20 kilometers per hour - introduced to protect the many passers-by.
Traffic is now allowed to move again in the southbound direction from Berliner Straße via Marktplatz towards Wilhelmsplatz and Waldstraße. As in the past, the northbound lane is reserved exclusively for buses and cabs. In future - as soon as the corresponding structural marking and signage work has been completed next year - cycle traffic will also be officially permitted to travel north (Berliner Straße). This should also improve the route to and from the city center by bike.
With the opening to traffic, the detour signs, which are gradually being removed, will no longer be necessary. Now that the work at Kaiserlei has also come to an end, visitors from outside Offenbach can once again reach the city center more easily from Frankfurt and from the 661 freeway via Berliner Straße.
The closure was necessary to protect the construction workers, due to the new construction of the road and lane narrowing during the work on the market square, which will be fully completed by spring 2023. Because many drivers did not adhere to the road closure, there were repeated delays in the construction work. In the meantime, the city police were called out several times to carry out spot checks. A private security service also had to be deployed at the beginning of the closure.