 | |
|---|---|
 Location of the A13 in Switzerland | |
| Route information | |
| Length | 195 km (121 mi) |
| Location | |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Highway system | |
The A13 is a motorway, at times an Autostrasse (expressway), which runs from St. Margrethen in northeastern Switzerland through to Ascona in southern Switzerland, crossing the main chain of the Alps in the Grisons area. It is the southern half of European route E43.
The A13 started life as a road which was mainly an expressway, from the foggy beginnings at St. Margrethen through to Haag, opposite Liechtenstein. The motorway began at Haag and went through Reichenau. Then it was an expressway again until after Mesocco. The final kilometres linking it from Roveredo to the A2 motorway were an expressway. Today, the section from St. Margrethen through Haag has been thoroughly converted to a motorway. Due to the tough terrain, the transformation of the Graubünden section into a full motorway would be difficult.
The route is challenging south of Chur, capital of the Grisons. The year-round opening of the route only became possible in 1967, when the San-Bernardino tunnel was built, including the approaching branches of the A13. Therefore, it sometimes appears to be more of a widened mountain road, rather than a motorway or an expressway. For the whole of the ramps towards the culmination at the San-Bernardino tunnel, between Thusis and Soazza, there is no central structure to separate the two carriageway directions; each lane is about 50 percent larger than on a main highway, and overtaking (using part of the carriageway reserved for the other direction) is allowed where signposted. The expressway finds its way through the Alps by means of the San Bernardino tunnel, which is 6.6 km (4.1 mi) in length. It also passes the Viamala gorge, where nocturnal shows [1] tell the story of 2000 years of road construction through this obstacle (summer only).
The A13 continues the A1 on the shores of the Bodensee, links with the A3 motorway at the Sargans junction at its northern branch, as well as the A2 motorway at Bellinzona, south of the Alps. It connects also with main roads heading for Flims-Disentis along the Alps or Klosters, St. Moritz via Julier Pass, and Italy (via the Splügen Pass).
Main route: St. Margrethen - Buchs SG - Sargans - Landquart - Chur - Thusis - Splügen - Cassanawald tunnel - Hinterrhein - San Bernardino road tunnel - Pian San Giacomo - Roveredo - Bellinzona - Locarno - Ascona
Speed limit: 120 km/h (75 mph) on all motorway parts; 100 km/h (62 mph) or at times 80 km/h (50 mph) on expressway parts. Speed checks do appear and penalties can be severe.
Tolls: Covered by CHF 40 annual motorway toll sticker.
The A13 starts in St. Margrethen, Canton of St. Gallen right after the A1. Afterwards, it crosses through the entire Rhine Valley, connects along the border with Austria and Liechtenstein, towards Sargans, where A3 joins the A13.
The highway then heads to Chur, the capital of Grisons, and turns southwards at Reichenau, where one can divert to drive along the Alps on the main road to Flims-Disentis-Andermatt-Brig (summer only), whereas A13 leads to Thusis (about 600.0 metres or 1,968.5 feet up).
From Thusis the A13 climbs an altitude difference of some 1000 metres to the 6.6 km (4.1 mi) long San Bernardino Tunnel at around 1,650 metres (5,410 ft).
After the tunnel the road is marked by many galleries and strong avalanche-control curves back down into the Valle Mesolcina, using two long bridges to allow wide turns in this steep valley. At Soazza, shortly after Mesocco, the street again becomes a highway. The A13 continues downhill and joins, shortly before the Ticino capital Bellinzona, merging with A2 at an altitude of 240 m (790 ft).
Between Ascona and a roundabout south of Gaggiole in the Canton of Ticino, A13 is extended as the N13 highway; however, it is indicated by the crossed-out highway signs that Switzerland motorway sticker on this route is not necessary. Locarno is bypassed with the 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) long Mappo–Morettina Tunnel. In this tunnel, there is one lane for each direction.
Originally, a largely non-divided section of the expressway from Sargans to the north has long been regarded as a particularly dangerous stretch: time and again, it experienced severe front-end collisions. In the period from 1979 to 2002, 96 people died on the A13, five times more than usual in Switzerland's highways.
On 16 September 2006, a fire broke out in the Viamala Tunnel, after a head-on collision between a tour bus and a car, which killed nine people. Involved in the collision was a second passenger car. At least four other vehicles were affected.
As a major transit route, shifting traffic from the A13 is a major concern. For the future, the introduction of an Alpentransitbörse is being discussed.
 | This article contains a bulleted list or table of intersections which should be presented in a properly formatted junction table.(December 2021) |
| Junctions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Grisons or Graubünden, more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton of Graubünden, is one of the twenty-six cantons of Switzerland. It has eleven regions, and its capital is Chur. The German name of the canton, Graubünden, translates as the "Grey Leagues", referring to the canton's origin in three local alliances, the Three Leagues. The other native names also refer to the Grey League: Grischùn in Sutsilvan, Grischun in the other forms of Romansh, and Grigioni in Italian. "Rhaetia" is the Latin name for the area. The Alpine ibex is the canton's heraldic symbol.
The Rhaetian Railway, abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the RhB operates all the railway lines of the Swiss canton of Grisons, except for the line from Sargans to the cantonal capital, Chur, which are operated by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), as well as the line from Disentis/Mustér to the Oberalp Pass and further on to Andermatt, Uri, which is operated by Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB). Inaugurated in 1888 and expanded from 1896 onwards in various sections, the RhB network is located almost entirely within Grisons, with one station across the Italian border at Tirano.
There are 101 municipalities in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland.
The A3 is a motorway in northeast Switzerland, running diagonally from France toward the southeast border, and passing by Zürich on the way. The total length of the A3 motorway spans roughly 180 kilometres (110 mi), but parts of the road share sections of the A1 and A2 motorways.
San Bernardino Pass is a high mountain pass in the Swiss Alps connecting the Hinterrhein and the Mesolcina (Misox) valleys between Thusis and Bellinzona. Located in the far eastern side of the Western Alps it is not to be confused with the Great St Bernard Pass and the Little St Bernard Pass. The top of the pass represents both the Italo-German language frontier and the watershed between the Po basin and the Rhine basin. Marscholsee is within the pass at an elevation of 2,053 m (6,736 ft).
The Bellinzona–Mesocco railway was a Swiss metre gauge railway that linked the towns of Bellinzona, in the canton of Ticino and Mesocco, in the canton of Graubünden. The line was built by the Società Anonima della Ferrovia Elettrica Bellinzona-Mesocco and later became part of the Rhaetian Railway. Before complete closure, the section of the line between Castione-Arbedo, and Cama was operated by the Società Esercizio Ferroviario Turistico (SEFT) as a tourist railway known as the Ferrovia Mesolcinese.
The Three Leagues, sometimes referred to as Raetia, was the alliance of 1471 of the League of God's House, the League of the Ten Jurisdictions, and the Grey League, leading eventually to the formation of the Swiss canton of Graubünden (Grisons).
Switzerland has a two-class highway system: motorways with separated roads for oncoming traffic and a standard maximal speed limit of 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph), and expressways often with oncoming traffic and a standard maximal speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph).
San Bernardino is a mountainous village in the canton of Grisons in Switzerland. It is the southern entry point to the San Bernardino tunnel, which complemented the road over the San Bernardino Pass in 1967, opening a new all-year-round road to crossing the Alps.
The Valle Mesolcina, also known as the Val Mesolcina or Misox (German), is an alpine valley of the Grisons, Switzerland, stretching from the San Bernardino Pass to Grono where it joins the Calanca Valley. It is the valley formed by the river Moesa.
The Hinterrhein is one of the two initial tributaries of the Rhine rising in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.
The Einshorn is a mountain of the Lepontine Alps, overlooking Hinterrhein in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.
Richard La Nicca was a Swiss engineer known as the pioneering planner and implementer of the Jura water correction project in the Swiss Jura.
Landquart railway station is a major railway station in the municipality of Landquart, in the Swiss canton of Grisons. It is an intermediate stop on the Swiss Federal Railways Chur–Rorschach line and the junction of the Landquart–Davos Platz and Landquart–Thusis lines of the Rhaetian Railway. It is served by long-distance, local, and regional trains.
Viamala or Via Mala is a narrow gorge along the river Hinterrhein between Zillis-Reischen and Thusis in the Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, as well as the ancient and notorious pathway which traverses the gorge. Historically the Viamala was the most serious obstacle on the approach to the Splügen and San Bernardino mountain passes.
The Schams is a section of the Hinterrhein valley in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.
Heinzenberg is the western side of Hinterrhein valley in the Swiss canton of Graubünden between the Viamala and the narrow valley in Rothenbrunnen. The eastern side of the valley is called Domleschg. The region is named after the Heinzenberg Castle near the village of Präz.
The Chur–Rorschach railway line, also called the Rhine Valley line, is a standard gauge railway line in Switzerland. It belongs to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and is located in the cantons of St. Gallen and the Grisons.
The Ziegelbrücke–Sargans railway line is a railway line operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).
The Hauptstrasse 13 is a main road (“Hauptstrasse”) in the Swiss cantons of Schaffhausen, Zürich, Thurgau, St. Gallen, Grisons and Ticino. This main road begins at the German border at Trasadingen at the Bundesstraße 34 and ends at the Strada Statale 34 at the Italian border at Brissago. Between the border crossing Trasadingen / Erzingen and the A4 at Schaffhausen it is part of European route E54. The total length of Hauptstrasse 13 is approximately 320 kilometers.
Motorways of Switzerland ( Autobahnen / Autoroutes / Autostrade ) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  | ||
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
