Today’s groundbreaking ceremony with representatives of Nature Friends, the City of Vienna and the funding agency ecoplus. Niederösterreichs Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH marks the beginning of a two-year construction phase. During this time, the missing, almost 8.5 km long route from Kaiserbrunn to the former Singerin inn, which until now had to be covered on the federal highway, will be rebuilt.
This creates a continuous, safe hiking trail for all age groups from Payerbach-Reichenau train station to Schwarzau im Gebirge. Andreas Schieder, chairman of the Friends of Nature Austria, is delighted: “For over ten years, the Friends of Nature have been intensively committed to a hiking trail that connects Kaiserbrunn with the Weichtalhaus. Now the time has finally come. The implementation of this path is a milestone and shows that commitment and persistence pay off.”
The new section of path increases traffic safety and eliminates a safety risk for hikers. The path currently ends in Kaiserbrunn and the popular Weichtalhaus can only be reached via the busy federal highway 27. Project initiator Hubert Prigl, chairman of Naturfreunde Hirschwang-Reichenau: “Walking on this road through the Höllental is dangerous for climbers, hiking enthusiasts and pilgrims. School classes who want to spend the night in the Weichtalhaus and visit Kaiserbrunn – a wonderful excursion destination with its nature trail and water pipe museum – are recommended to take the bus despite the short distance.”
The idea of continuing the hiking trail from Kaiserbrunn to Weichtalhaus has been around since the City of Vienna’s water pipeline path was opened in 1998. The fact that the project is now finally on the home stretch is not least thanks to the Lower Austrian business agency ecoplus.
“With our regional funding, we support communities, initiatives and associations in the implementation of infrastructure projects that are important to the regional economy. One focus is on optimization measures for the hiking offerings in Lower Austria. We support projects related to hiking that have appropriate tourism relevance. The new Höllental river hiking trail will provide valuable impetus for the entire region,” says ecoplus Managing Director Helmut Miernicki.
The city of Vienna, as the landowner, also contributed significantly to the success as it supported the project from the start. The city of Vienna was particularly concerned about continuing the hiking trail to the Singerin. “The river hiking trail is an excellent example of guided, gentle tourism that is in harmony with nature and drinking water protection in the region,” says Peter Lepkowicz, head of the spring protection forestry administration of the municipality of Vienna.
Finally, Andreas Schieder proudly reports: “One should not forget that the alpine path network in Austria is primarily looked after and maintained by the alpine clubs, around 7,500 km of them by 150 different local groups of Nature Friends Austria. This work is done exclusively on a voluntary basis. The implementation of this path was also pushed forward by the Hirschwang-Reichenau local group in their free time and they will also maintain and look after the path in the future.”
Numerous private individuals, tourism businesses and companies from the region also donated generously. At a celebration following the groundbreaking ceremony, all donors were thanked with the symbolic presentation of a specially created Höllental hiking pin.