Construction work on the so-called Old Bridge in Bratislava is due for completion by December, according to the daily SME. The city cannot afford for anything more to go wrong on the delayed project, as failure to open the bridge by year’s end could lead the European Union to revoke a promise of €63m in funding. That’s roughly 85 percent of the bridge’s pricetag, with the Slovak state and the city of Bratislava due to pick up the remaining 10 and 5 percent of the tab. Construction has been delayed by a mixture of the absurd and the bizarre, with underwater mines having been found near the bridge and workers being given 3 weeks off for the Christmas holidays. The bridge is a key piece of transport infrastructure for the Slovak capital as it allows trams to connect the densely populated suburb of Petržalka with the rest of the city.
