A new lifting bridge in Sweden is now clear to start construction after two years of court battles. Challenges to the design of the proposed Hisings Bridge in Gothenburg, which when closed will be lower than the existing bridge in order to free up more land on the approaches, were dismissed by the appeal court in May and the Transport Committee in Gothenburg last week gave the go-ahead for the contract to be awarded to Skanska MTH Hisings Bridge joint venture. Construction is expected to start at the beginning of 2017 with the bridge open to highway traffic in 2020 and tram traffic in 2021. The existing bridge will then be demolished.
The new bridge will have a clearance of just 13m when closed, compared to 19.5m of the existing structure, and this prompted complaints from other municipalities upstream who said that the reduced height would have a negative impact on vessels using the Gota River.
