Green light given for removal of Belgrade's Old Sava Bridge: Here's when the last tram will cross it

The removal of the Old Sava Bridge (Stari Savski Most) in Belgrade can start, now that the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure issued a decision to this effect, Politika has learned.

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The fact that all the obstacles to dismantling the bridg have been formally and legally removed in order to build a new and bigger one in the same place, does not mean this will happen immediately. Instead, that work will most likely start next year.

According to an engineer involved in the preparation of the technical documentation, both for the old and for the new bridge, demanding tasks must first be carried out, around the pillars of the existing bridge and on the access roads on both sides of the river, before the landmark, green arch structure will be taken down and moved to the Sava bank onto a temporary construction plateau - a fenced area between the Old Sava and Branko's bridges, which itself been under preparation since a few months ago.

"The dismantling is a very complex job and it will be done carefully, which means that the existing bridge will not be drilled or cut, but will be removed from the pillars in one piece and moved to the bank, to the construction site where it will be disassembled into parts and then allowed to float down the river to some other place, and where exactly, I don't know," said the engineer, adding that requests for construction permits for the new bridge and for access roads in the old part of the city and on the New Belgrade side have been submitted.

On the left bank of the Sava, the construction plateau is being extensively worked on, which must first be examined in detail in order to determine that there are no explosive devices left there from previous wars. The layers of soil in that area have been removed, it should now be filled with crushed stone, and the Memorial to the Victims of Genocide at the Old Fairgrounds needs to be protected in the process.

When the entire operation is completed in 36 months, which is the deadline stated on the construction site board - that does not yet include a start date - the entire area must be restored to its original state because, "work is being done according to the conditions set by the City Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments and all precautionary measures will be applied".

(Telegraf.rs/Politika)