Closing the gap on the 100 castles route

On Tuesday, District Administrator Dr. Olaf Gericke and Mayor Michael Gerdhenrich officially opened the new cycle path along the K24 south-east of Beckum together with the district planning department head Dr. Herbert Bleicher.

19 April 2023
Clearing the way for the new cycle path: from left André Hackelbusch, Mayor Michael Gerdhenrich, District Administrator Dr. Olaf Gericke, Head of Planning Dr. Herbert Bleicher and Martin Terwey.
  • Clearing the way for the new cycle path: from left André Hackelbusch, Mayor Michael Gerdhenrich, District Administrator Dr. Olaf Gericke, Head of Planning Dr. Herbert Bleicher and Martin Terwey.

"With the new cycle path, we are creating another important gap in our extensive cycle path network in the district of Warendorf. The linking of existing cycle paths makes the transport route network even more attractive for locals and tourists," said District Administrator Dr Gericke, explaining the importance of the new section. "Closing the gap on the 100 Castles Route will make Beckum even more interesting for cyclists and is an ideal addition to the already attractive cycle path network," said Mayor Gerdhenrich with conviction. "The construction of the new 1,000 metre long and 2.5 metre wide section of cycle path has significantly enhanced the 100 Castles Route in this section," explained district planning officer Dr Herbert Bleicher.

The formerly narrow Pättken has been converted into a wide and comfortable cycle path with an asphalted surface. This not only meets the ADFC's quality criteria for cycle paths, but also enables safe cycling with e-bikes, comfortable side-by-side cycling (sometimes even with luggage) and relaxed traffic. The construction costs amount to around 465,000 euros. The measure is being funded by the state of NRW (regional economic development programme) and the EU from the European Regional Development Fund to the tune of 123,000 euros, as well as by the state in accordance with the local mobility funding guidelines and the federal government's special "Urban and Rural" programme to the tune of around 278,000 euros.

Background: Over the past three years, Münsterland e. V., together with the local authorities and districts, has mobilised around ten million euros for the major "Münsterland Castles and Palaces Region" project. In the district of Warendorf alone, the local authorities in the district and the tourism working group have provided a total of around 346,000 euros as co-funding for all measures. This has brought around 1.8 million euros in funding to the district of Warendorf. The aim is to position the Münsterland even more strongly as a premium cycling region and to score points as a cycling region with particularly high-quality offers in a nationwide comparison. This is because competition between tourism regions is fierce. For this reason, the Münsterland cycling region will not rest on its laurels, but will work in collaboration with the local authorities to further develop its quality.

This year's ADFC cycle tour analysis underlines just how crucial the quality of cycle paths is: 70 per cent of respondents stated that the accessibility of the route was a particularly important aspect when planning day trips. The Münsterland is therefore on the right track here, as the survey also shows: the region ranks fourth among the TOP 10 cycling regions in Germany.