Infrastructure Future Act

Speeding up infrastructure? The practical implications of Germany’s new Infrastructure Future Act

With the Infrastructure Future Act (Infrastruktur-Zukunftsgesetz, InfZuG), the German Federal Government is setting the course for reforming the planning and permitting law which currently constitutes the decisive bottleneck for infrastructure projects in Germany. The objective is to deliver key infrastructure projects - particularly in the road, rail and inland waterways sectors, many of which are crucial for military mobility and national defence - more quickly, digitally and with greater legal certainty. The Federal Cabinet adopted the draft bill on 17 December 2025, and the parliamentary process has now begun.

For stakeholders involved in the planning and delivery of major infrastructure projects, the draft legislation introduces a number of changes that should be factored into project strategy at an early stage.

Infrastructure as an overriding public interest

A cornerstone of the Act is the statutory declaration that major infrastructure projects serve an “overriding public interest”. This designation has significant implications for administrative decision-making and judicial review, as it structures balancing exercises and assigns greater weight to certain interests, most notably infrastructure delivery and security considerations.

The projects covered include:

• bottleneck elimination measures in Germany’s federal transport infrastructure network (federal trunk roads, federal railways and federal inland waterways),
• expansion, new construction, replacement construction and significant modernisation of the federal rail network,
• construction of federal motorways and four-lane federal highways,
• ongoing and firmly planned inland waterway projects,
• replacement construction of bridges as well as new and expanded rest areas and HGV parking facilities,
• militarily relevant transport infrastructure.

The chosen approach explicitly links infrastructure policy with public security and the functional resilience of the state, an approach that is likely to influence future administrative and court decisions.

Stronger consideration of security and defence interests

A key innovation is the explicit statutory anchoring of the military relevance of certain infrastructure projects: For projects of significance for national and alliance defence, this aspect is defined as a priority consideration (vorrangiger Belang) when balanced against protected interests such as environmental or nature conservation. The legislative draft intends to increase the resilience of critical infrastructure and aims to ensure Germany’s defence readiness, making this a central element of the justification for a project's approval. In practice, this does not eliminate environmental or nature conservation requirements, but it may cause them to carry less weight in the overall assessment.

For projects with a security- or defence-related dimension, the Act therefore opens up additional lines of argumentation, both in administrative proceedings and in potential litigation, and thus significantly increases the chances of securing planning of permitting.

Simplified procedures and fewer formal hurdles

The Act places a strong emphasis on procedural simplification and acceleration. Core elements include the abolition of spatial planning assessments (Raumverträglichkeitsprüfung) for key transport projects, the introduction of simplified route determination procedures (Linienbestimmung) without environmental impact assessments (Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung) and expanded options for early commencement of works.

In addition, legal remedies against road, rail and waterway infrastructure projects will no longer have suspensive effect. Participation and objection procedures are to be conducted entirely digitally as a rule, based on uniform nationwide standards. For project developers, this may result in significantly shorter project timelines.

Outlook

The Infrastructure Future Act modifies Germany’s approach to infrastructure delivery. Essential infrastructure projects are more firmly embedded in law as matters of overriding public interest and public security, while planning and approval procedures are streamlined and further digitalised without formally abandoning environmental or legal protection standards.

However, compared to earlier drafts, the government bill adopts a noticeably more cautious approach to transitional provisions: The acceleration effects of the new regime will materialise primarily for new projects after the law’s entry into force, whereas ongoing planning procedures will continue under the existing legal framework. The Act is expected to complete the legislative process in the course of 2026 and, once promulgated, to enter into force on the day following its publication.