Munich says penalties and bonuses would not speed up city roadworks

Munich's city administration has said that fines for late roadworks and bonuses for early completion are not workable for building projects on the city's streets. The statement came in a response from Georg Dunkel, head of the Mobility Department, to a motion by city councillor Dirk Höpner of the München-Liste.

In his motion of 9 January 2026, Mr Höpner called for binding limits on how long roadworks can last, financial incentives for finishing quickly, and systematic use of extended working hours. Mr Dunkel apologised for the delay in replying. He said the issues had already been discussed by the joint mobility and district administration committee, and by the full city council on 30 July 2025, when councillors considered changes to the fees charged for using public streets for construction site set-up. Before that decision, the Mobility Department, the Building Department, the District Administration Department, Munich Urban Drainage and the municipal utility Stadtwerke München (SWM) had examined the questions over several rounds of talks.

The Building Department said binding construction periods and completion dates are already part of all its civil engineering contracts. These are checked regularly by the city's site supervisors and are met in more than 90 per cent of cases. Because the Mobility Department issues a separate traffic order for each phase of a project, the overall construction period cannot be set in a single order. Where deadlines are missed, the reasons are recorded and steps are taken if the overall schedule is at risk. SWM said it welcomed the aim of making roadworks more efficient, and that it continuously checks that construction periods are kept and looks at ways to shorten them on every project.

On penalties, the Building Department said contract fines of this kind had previously been criticised by the city's audit office. Delays on city streets are often caused by outside factors beyond contractors' control, and under current case law, penalties may only cover delays a contractor is shown to be responsible for and must be proportionate. The department also expects bidders would build the risk of a penalty into their prices, making construction more expensive. For the same reasons, it said a bonus scheme would not achieve its aim either.

The department added that night, weekend and holiday working is already used regularly on major routes in agreement with the Mobility Department. It said these quieter periods are particularly well suited to resurfacing work on federal roads such as the Mittlerer Ring.