History 1924 – 1935

The idea takes form. In the autumn of 1924 Dip. Eng. Franz Wallack was commissioned to undertake the project of a three-metre-wide road, with the option to widen to five metres, passing points within sight of each other, the steepest gradient of 12 per cent (Edelweißspitze 14 per cent) and a gravel surface at a cost of what was then three million Austrian Schillings – which is equal to 6.5 million Euro today (the cheap variant). In 1928 the Provincial Head of Government Franz Rehrl gave the decisive impulse for the building of the  Glockner Road.

In the autumn of 1929 the Salzburg government unanimously decided under the increasing economic pressure to build the Glockner Road.

On 30 August 1930 the first detonation was heard at 9.30am in Ferleiten. The time until the winter was mainly used for survey work.

On 19 February 1931 the Grossglockner High Alpine Road PLC was founded. The building went rapidly forward.

Of the 30.2km of both ramps, a third was completed by the end of 1931 leaving two-thirds still being built.

Thirteen months later, on 22 September 1934, as the first driver Rehrl crossed the Hohen Tauern on the un-graded road in an adapted Steyr 100 (1.2 litre, 32 HP, 100km per hour top speed, about 10 litres of petrol for 100km).

The approach roads in the Möll valley and in the Fusch valley were upgraded before the opening of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road.

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road was officially opened on 3 August 1935. 870,000 cubic metres of earth and rock were moved in the 26 months of building, 15,750 cubic metres of walling was created, 67 bridges built and a road telephone with 24 facilities was installed. 3,200 works undertook 1.8 million work shifts.

The total building costs, according to the final calculations from 16 April 1936, amounted to the 53.5 million euro at the currency of today for the road building, 3.3 million euro for improvement of the approach roads, the telephone facilities and various details.