Berlin’s Tiergartentunnel partly closed again after technical fault

Part of the Tiergartentunnel in Berlin-Mitte was closed again on Thursday because of a technical fault, the Berliner Morgenpost reports. The road tunnel had only just been shut overnight because of a staff shortage, the latest in a series of closures this year.

What happened

The Tiergartentunnel is a major road tunnel running north to south under the government district in central Berlin. According to the Berliner Morgenpost, the Verkehrsinformationszentrale (VIZ) Berlin, the city’s traffic information centre, announced on Bluesky that the tunnel was fully closed in the direction of Moabit because of a “technische Störung”, or technical fault.

In the other direction, towards Kreuzberg, only the entrance at Invalidenstraße was closed. The VIZ said the entrance at Heidestraße remained open.

The new problem came straight after another closure. On Wednesday evening the VIZ had reported that the tunnel was shut because of “an acute staff shortage”. The VIZ had said the tunnel would stay closed until at least 5.30 on Thursday morning. That was before the technical fault was reported.

The paper notes that this is a recurring problem. From April, the tunnel could not be used at night for many weeks, also because of staffing problems. Further closures followed in October, each lasting several days.

Frank Preiss, a press officer at the Senatsverwaltung für Verkehr (the Berlin Senate Department for Transport), said a few weeks ago that “the complexity and sensitivity of the work make it difficult to find suitable staff, especially against the background of the shortage of skilled workers”, according to the Morgenpost.

In mid-October, Claudia Löffler, press spokesperson for the ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg, the regional branch of Germany’s largest motoring club, said: “One of Berlin’s most important north-south connections cannot be permanently affected by staffing shortages. The repeated closures show that a reliable solution for tunnel monitoring is needed.” She added that as long as closures are necessary, road users above all need to be able to plan ahead, with early information, reliable closure times and clear signage.

What it means for you

If you drive through central Berlin, especially between Mitte, Moabit and Kreuzberg, the tunnel may not be available, or only partly available, at short notice. Based on the Morgenpost report, the situation on Thursday was:

• Towards Moabit: the tunnel was fully closed.
• Towards Kreuzberg: the Invalidenstraße entrance was closed, while the Heidestraße entrance stayed open.

The tunnel complex is made up of three separate tunnels, built between 1995 and 2006. The Morgenpost explains that the three are not connected to each other for traffic. Together they run under the Spreebogen, the bend in the River Spree, in the triangle between the Hauptbahnhof (Berlin’s central station), the Kanzleramt (the Federal Chancellery) and the Paul-Löbe-Haus, a parliamentary building. If you usually drive to or past these places, expect diversions and possible congestion on surface roads.

Before setting off, check the VIZ Berlin’s latest updates, which it posts on Bluesky. Since closures this year have been announced at short notice and sometimes extended or changed, it is worth checking again shortly before you travel, especially for late-night or early-morning journeys. The source does not say when the tunnel will fully reopen in the direction of Moabit or at the Invalidenstraße entrance.

What to watch next

The main open question is whether the technical fault can be fixed quickly and whether the staffing problem behind the earlier closures will be solved. The Senate Department for Transport has said suitable staff are hard to find, and the ADAC has called for a reliable long-term solution for monitoring the tunnel. Until there is one, drivers should be ready for further short-notice closures, such as the night-time shutdowns from April and the multi-day closures in October.

Source: Berliner Morgenpost