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The old ammo shop in Mitholz BE will definitely be cleared. The Federal Council has given the green light to the project. Work will begin after 2030. Mitholz will then become a ghost village for more than ten years.
Federal Councilwoman Viola Amherd informed the public of Friday’s decision by letter and video message, as the Federal Council announced Monday. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, no informational event could be held.
Evacuation plans were presented to the population for the first time in early February. For security reasons, residents will have to leave the village for about ten years. Disposal of ammunition waste will start after 2030. The first structural measures will be used to reduce the risk from 2021/2022.
Costs up to CHF 900 million
The Federal Council commissioned the Department of Defense (DDPS) to present a dispatch on the financing of the evacuation, including protective measures, by the fall of 2022. Parliament will decide on the compromise appropriation. From today’s perspective, the costs are estimated at CHF 500 to 900 million.
Until a loan is approved, project work will be funded from the DDPS budget. This incurs costs of around 40 million francs. In addition to security measures, this money will also be used for the purchase of the first properties.
Next year, the properties in Mitholz will be evaluated “so that concrete solutions can be found for the future together with the residents involved.” Between 50 and 60 homes in Mitholz are affected by the eviction. Some families have lived in the village for generations.
Cover only as an emergency nail
In addition to full evacuation, the option of simply rock covering the munitions waste on the rock is also planned. This variant would have prevented the population from a long-term evacuation, but it does not solve the basic problem.
For the Federal Council, this “reserve position” only comes into play if an evacuation is not possible or must be canceled for technical or security reasons.
The state government bases the evacuation decision on the final report of the Mitholz task force. The general concept had the approval of the cantonal and communal authorities, as well as “a large part” of the residents of Mitholz, as the communication says.
Erbe explosives
The huge underground army ammunition depot was buried in an explosion in 1947. Nine people were killed in the blast, forty residential buildings and the train station were destroyed. The rock wall on which the ammunition depot was located collapsed. In the days that followed, there were repeated detonations and projectiles and stones flew through the air. The villagers received great support with packages of relief supplies from all over Switzerland. The reason for the explosion was presumably chemical autoignition. According to authorities, there is still up to 3,500 tonnes of ammunition waste in the collapsed parts of the facility and in the rubble cone.
For a long time, experts assumed that any further explosion would only cause limited damage. In 2018 alone, the DDPS concluded in a new risk analysis that the warehouse represents a greater risk than previously assumed. According to the authorities, the risk to the population is not acceptable.
In addition to the evacuation of the village, structural measures are planned to protect the railway line and the national road in Kandertal. The Federal Council is examining the expansion of the Mitholz tunnel. The variants of covering the national highway or relocating it outside the danger zone are not being pursued.
