You have to hand it to some German politicians, when they call for concrete investments, they mean concrete, as in the building material.
Recently, a bridge over the Moselle river made the predictable headline: Bridge more expensive than planned. The original costing from 2010 stood at just under 130 million Euros. The latest figure in the press was just over 450 million.
The overrun does not surprise anyone, but what piqued our interest was the comment by the state interior secretary regarding the latest cost hike of 80 million over last year's figure.
The man said the bridge won't cost more because the federal government has agreed to pay the extra 80 million.
The precision of this statement made us want more, there must be more, we figured. And there was. Even better, it has to do with the ferry in our post "Jolly Jumper Takes the Ferry"!
The stretch of the Rhine river described by travel guru Rick Steves as the only part of the river worth a visit is ailing. The tourists are coming in large numbers, but the non-tourism economy has been suffering. Many companies previously stuck in the canyon moved up into the hills on either side of the confined space, where agricultural land was opened up for industry. Young people moved away, old folks remained.
Someone said if only we had a bridge, we'd do much better.
Concrete, concrete, the cheers mounted.
Opposition was strong, however, and they had a previously celebrated accomplishment on their side: the stretch of the valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Then came a change in the state government with the Green party getting a government role, and the project of a bridge for the bargain basement price of 40 million Euros was put on hold.
Instead, the devious Greens extended the opening hours of the ferry. The bridge proponents were on board with this, because increased traffic would certainly benefit their cause.
After the first year of extended ferry hours, traffic was up by around 20 cars a day.
Which brought the world an enlightened comment by the interior secretary and stalwart advocate of a bridge:
The numbers are very much proof that we need a bridge. A bridge would also be maintenance free.
We looked at some finance figures. The ferry is subsidized to the tune of about 100 000 Euros a year (with the extended hours, as far as we can tell). This would give ferry users 10 years of operation for 1 million Euros in subsidies.
Do the math with 40 million, and don't forget that the ferry has four or five employees.
We do not have time for the math, sorry.
You won't believe how difficult it is to unearth the secret of how to build a maintenance free bridge.
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