Schroeder complains frogs make German roads dear
Date: 17-Aug-01
Country: GERMANY
"I don't have anything against frogs," Schroeder said while inspecting a recently finished segment of a long-delayed Autobahn, the A-20, that runs along the Baltic coast.
"But the expenditures we make for protecting the environment while building roads are enormous," Schroeder added.
Construction on the motorway began in 1991 and the entire 323-km (190-mile) autobahn - the most expensive in German history - will be completed in 2005 at a cost of 3.7 billion marks ($1.7 billion). It will link Luebeck with the eastern towns of Wismar, Rostock, Straslund and Greifswald.
Schroeder said ecology was a main feature of the A-20 motorway. Ecologists had succeeded in delaying and partially re-routing the autobahn with various court challenges, saying endangered wildlife and wetlands were threatened.
"The next thing you know we're going to be required to teach the storks that they should leave the frogs alone when the frogs try to cross the streets," Schroeder joked.
