Workers are currently renewing the pavement on Reichenhaller Straße on behalf of the city of Salzburg. The granite for this comes from the Far East. “Simply for cost reasons,” they say.
An attentive “Krone” reader could hardly believe his eyes when he walked through Reichenhaller Straße in Salzburg today. Workers are currently laying new curbs there. The granite blocks have had an extremely long journey. The packages stored in the Riedenburg district are marked “Country of origin: China”. “As if there were no stones in Salzburg”, the Salzburger shakes his head. He is also certain: “Chinese granite was also laid in the Rehrl school on Lehener Strasse.”
In response to a “Krone” request, the city of Salzburg said that the choice of materials was the decision of the construction company. There was a tender for the work on Reichenhaller Strasse. The origin of the granite is not regulated there. The company was the “best bidder”, so laying the Chinese stones was a matter of price. “Where the company gets the stones from is not in our opinion”, it says.
Stonemasons cannot compete on price
Online retailers charge nearly $20 per linear meter of granite from the port in China – local stonemasons can’t keep up. And this despite the fact that the blocks of stone from the Far East have traveled thousands of kilometers by sea.
If local stone is to be used in Salzburg in the future, this must be clearly regulated in the tender. And here lies the next bureaucratic hurdle. “The whole thing should be EU-compliant,” they say. Various rules can easily be violated.
Chinese stone on domestic construction sites – this is certainly not a rarity. Recently, a similar issue even concerned the Upper Austrian state parliament. Granite from the Far East was also used on a state construction site in the Mühlviertel.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
