At only 1,374m/4,508ft the Brenner is the lowest Alpine pass in western Austria and can be used all the year round. This mountain which stretches over the eastern ridge of the Alps is the most important traffic link between Germany and Italy. The Brenner motorway runs from the Inn Valley south of Innsbruck up the Wipptal via the Adriatic/Black Sea watershed to the Alto Adige valley. Since 1919 the pass has marked the frontier between Austria and Italy. There was already a pass over the Brenner in Roman times. In 1772 it was marked out afresh. Increased motor traffic in more recent times necessitated a number of widenings and extensions to this north-south link road.
Shortly after the Second World War it became clear that the Brenner Road was inadequate, so a new route was planned and a start made on building it in 1959. The Brenner Motorway (completed in 1974) runs south from Innsbruck, passing under the Patscherkofel. It then spans the Sill valley by means of the Europabrücke (Europe Bridge), which was built between 1959-63; it is 795m/2,620ft long and 190m/625ft high and is supported on massive pillars. The Brenner Railway was first opened in 1867. It connects the Tyrolean capital of Innsbruck with Bolzano, the capital of the Alto Adige (South Tirol). Although not steep, the line has many bends, and trains can travel only slowly. To improve efficiency a tunnel is being built. At the end of 1989, two days after the truck drivers blockade was lifted (see next item on Brenner problems), the first sod was dug near Tulfes, a village east of Innsbruck, and a start made on the 12.7km/8mi long Inntal (Inn Valley) Tunnel, which was expected to be completed by the middle of 1993. Some 27,000 motor vehicles, 5,000 of which are trucks, pass along the Brenner every day. Long queues during holiday periods, damage to the vegetation caused by exhaust fumes and - last but not least - the noise are all the extremely unpleasant results of the ever-increasing volume of traffic. Repeated complaints from the public finally resulted in traffic restrictions being imposed in 1989, forbidding trucks to travel at night. In September 1989 Italian truck drivers blocked the Brenner Pass in protest at what they considered was the excessively low limit set for the number of Italian trucks allowed to cross the Brenner each year. The problem might be eased somewhat if more trucks were able to use the motorail.
In 2006, work began on tunnels for the railroad from Verona to Innsbruck. This includes the Brenner Base Tunnel under the Brenner Pass. The upgrade is being done to ease the road traffic.
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