Soon you won't have to wait for the red light to take over. The single-lane bridge, which is the only country road for leisure-destroying westerners to get to Björnön, is to be demolished.
"It is in poor condition and does not have full bearing capacity," says Linnea Viklund, street manager of the city of Västerås.
However, the old bridge will be used until the new one, which is built next door, is completed in 2021. It will be ten meters wide, containing two lanes for motor vehicles and a separate bike / walkway.
- The new one will be next to the old one at ten meters intervals, so that we can have a working pontoon where we can build the new one and lead the traffic when the old one is demolished, explains Linnea Viklund.
Thousands of mussels are being movedAccording to strict water resources, the municipality must take into account both mussels, fish and bird life when the new bridge is being built. For example, one can only do muddy and noisy work in winter time so as not to disturb reproduction for fauna.
For environmental consultant Agnes Larsson and her colleagues, this means diving jobs, where it is important to save as many mussels as possible in the dying seabed.
- Yesterday we got a thousand mussels. It may hopefully be 6,000-7,000 clams when we are ready. There are four different mussel species here and all are red listed. Two of them are slightly more unusual species, so they are very important for biodiversity, says environmental consultant Agnes Larsson.
Everything should be ready by 2022You also put some kind of curtain in the water to prevent the cloudy water from the pile from spreading and the mussels migrating back.
- As a road user, you will not notice such a big difference apart from the width. It will be the same height below, but slightly less water support, says Linnea Viklund, street manager of the city of Västerås.
The cost of the bridge construction is estimated to be about 80 million, including the demolition of the old bridge, and everything will be ready by 2022.