Lienz says no to the widening of the bridge: Staying ideas for solutions!

Lienz says no to the widening of the bridge: Staying ideas for solutions!

Lienz, Österreich - The Iselsteg in Lienz does not become wider. In the discussion in the Lienz local council, Mayor Elisabeth Blanik said that the city council had already decided against widening the new bridge, although the city administration had commissioned the construction company Frey to examine a widening of 3.60 meters. The current bridge has a width of 2.75 meters, which leads to bottlenecks, especially when meeting strollers, e-bikes, walkers and pedestrians. A broader construction would require additional steel sidewalk and more robust abutment, which would be associated with additional costs of 226,177 euros plus VAT, which are not funding and should be borne by the city. One did not want to go into such financial burden, said the mayor.

Despite the rejection of carrying out the widening, the discussion about alternative solutions was not entirely over. City councilor Ursula Strobl saw the widening as promising and pointed out that the previous design of the bridge could no longer meet the needs of the public. Franz Theurl suggested radical measures by demanding that cyclists descend and push their bicycles, while Gerlinde Kieberl found the tightness of the bridge to be "decelerating" by the Greens.

new ideas for the bridge

Another idea brought ÖVP mandate Eva Karré: she suggested creating a bay for a "photo opoint" on one side of the bridge. This point could serve as an attractive element of the bridge, perhaps for tourists. The city tour will now calculate the costs of implementing such a photo office.

This situation in Lienz reflects a broader problem that is also observed in other regions of Germany. A recently published study by the German Institute for Urban Studies indicates that a significant number of bridges in Germany in need of renovation is in need of renovation. Over 8,000 bridges in the motorway network and about 3,000 on federal roads are in poor condition. Civil engineer Christian Ganz von Drees & Sommer emphasizes the security risks that result from the dilapidated infrastructure. One example is the Rahmede Tal Bridge on the A45, which was blocked in 2021 and blown up in 2023, which led to traffic problems and high costs.

In many German cities, the strategy for the renovation of bridges is actively worked on, such as Stuttgart and Nuremberg, which analyze their buildings and prepare data for strategic renovation plans. The legislator also reduced the approval obligation for bridge renovations in 2023 to enable faster measures. In the course of this, the latest technology such as artificial intelligence for bridge designs is used.

The challenges of the infrastructure in Lienz are therefore part of a larger topic that affects many cities and municipalities. The decision not to widen the Iselbrücke is in a context that stimulates thinking about long -term solutions.

The discussion about the temporary measures and the possibilities for structural changes therefore remains an open topic.