Work has finally begun on Kourkoumeli bridge

The long-awaited project to restore the Kourkoumeli bridge begins at last, after months of protests and inconvenience to drivers. The Directorate of Restoration of Modern Monuments has given the go-ahead and the contractor is starting work. 

Preparatory work will be carried out at first which will take from a week to 10 days and immediately after that, the actual restoration work will begin which will take about 20 to 30 days, as the Deputy Regional Governor for Infrastructure and Technical Works Manolis Orphanoudakis told Enimeorsi.

The bridge

During the inspections by the Technical Works Department on the whole of Corfu following the 'Ballos' storm, damage was found in this bridge. In February 2022, the Regional Authority submitted the study of temporary measures to support the bridge's structure for approval to the Directorate of Restoration of Modern Monuments.

However, while waiting for the approval, and since a year had passed without any response, the Ionian Islands Regional Council unanimously decided to temporarily close the bridge for safety reasons.

Although the geotechnical study did not reveal foundation problems, it was not possible to fully predict the behaviour of the bridge structure due to wear caused by unforeseeable situations (such as extreme weather conditions). This decision was also influenced by the fact that even though the Regional Technical Works Department lowered the weight capacity of the bridge from 15 to 3 tons in order to reduce the danger, heavy vehicles such as tri-axle trucks, buses and school buses continued to use it. Eventually, the bridge was closed around mid-February 2023.

"The approval came in May 2023 - 15 months after the submission of the study to the Directorate of Restoration of Modern Monuments. The delay was not our fault", said the Deputy Regional Governor for Infrastructure.

(Photo: Tasos Bouas)

MARIA BAZDRIYIANNI