Brussels, 12/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced a EUR 45 million loan for building a new bridge over the Danube in the Slovak capital, Bratislava. The agreement was signed with METRO Bratislava a.s., a company controlled by the Slovak Republic and Bratislava City. The release of the funds will depend on the results of a study into the environmental impact of the project (and adequate public consultation and for the calls for tender to meet the standard international procedures). In order to meet the EIB's conditions, METRO is calling on the services of international environmental consultants.
The project will involve building a new four-lane Kosicka road bridge across the Danube, connections with the motorway network on the south bank, upgrading roads on the north bank, cleaning a site and the necessary measures for minimising the environmental impact (noise and other pollution and the effect of cutting into the northern road network).
There are currently two motorway bridges and two road bridges over the Danube that connect Bratislava centre (on the north bank) with Petrzalka (on the south bank), a large residential zone with 130,000 inhabitants (30% of Bratislava's population). The four existing bridges are insufficient for coping with all the traffic but the Kosicka bridge should absorb 18% of the traffic crossing the river and cut congestion on the Pristavny bridge by separating off local traffic from long distance traffic. Traffic has been restricted on the Stary Most ("Old Bridge") for safety reasons and this bridge will soon be closed off to road traffic and turned into a pedestrian bridge. Since this will lead to yet more traffic on the other three bridges, the Kosicka project has become even more vital.