Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

This brand-new cycle path has raised eyebrows in Germany after it took five years to plan and an investment of 3.3 million EUR to produce a completely uneven route with numerous tiny hills.

The curiously uneven cycle path which covers a two-kilometre (1.2-mile) stretch is located in the Bavarian town of Kirchdorf an der Amper which is located in the Freising district of the southern German province.

In one section covering a little over 500 metres (1,640 feet), it has no less than five small hills which according to local officials was not a mistake and was deliberate.

Local media such as respected German newspaper Focus said that the bizarre construction looked as if the planners had confused creating a “mogul” ski slope which includes tiny hills with a cycle path. (https://bit.ly/39gT5vH)

However whereas the tiny hills on the mogul ski slope are introduced in order to make the route more fun for winter sports enthusiasts, the hills on the cycle path shown here came about as a result of a planning error despite the fact that the council had worked on it for five years.

The planning office in Friesing decided to build a cycle path to increase the network when they were doing renovation works on the local road, and realised too late that the height of the cycle path which was lower than the road would have made it difficult for agricultural vehicles in the nearby field to get onto the road.

They therefore needed to create the hills in order to make it possible for farming equipment to get onto the road in order to cross to the other side.

The council told the local newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung that they had considered making the whole cycle path higher but this would have made the whole project significantly more expensive and also caused problems with water retention. (https://bit.ly/3fPC7a1)

Instead, the district of Kirchdorf proposed the solution involving different levels creating five hills.

Mayor Uwe Gerlsbeck admitted that there could have been better solutions but at the end of the day they had a bike path which they had been wanting to achieve for 10 years.

Local council spokesman Robert Stangl added that the curious cycle path had become something of a tourist attraction, and is confident that once the grass has been planted people will barely notice and it will certainly by then seem less strange, he claimed.

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