I live in the edge of a valley, with a fairly decent town just over the hill (20,000 residents, four grocery stores, and a train station). There's one simple route to the town (straight over the hill) taking 2 minutes to reach, or the long route...taking five minutes to reach.
Back in 2018....toward the fall, the district had money to refurbish the 2-minute road (announced just two weeks prior). So they shut this road down....entirely....for about 3 months. It was a pain-in-the-ass, but necessary.
About two months after they reopened this 2-minute route....someone noticed problems with the bridge (there's one railway bridge on this road). In simple terms....it was probably within six months of failure. This scared the crap out of the inspection folks, and they shut down the bridge....keeping the 2-minute route open but meaning you have to transit through a large amount of housing area (low speeds).
The amusing side-story here....the city in the year prior.....near the bridge...had installed a blitz-camera for speeders. That was now proven worthless.
Almost an entire year was spent then devising the tear-down plan. Once that was torn down, then they had to work on the embankment (that took 18 months).
Six months ago, up as you enter this village....they built up a side area (probably half the size of a soccer field). Yeah, it was a fair amount of money to put up a massive amount of gravel and make it possible for a heavy weight to be put upon it.
A month or two passed, and they started building a iron-bridge there (it's about half-a-mile from the old bridge site). The plan is....build this, then transport it down the road.
Expected end-date? Well....looking at things...I'd say spring 2024.
Six years of this road and bridge situation? Yeah.
I should note here....this use of the side-street for the past four years.....has more or less....worn out the side-street, and there's probably a 3-million Euro replacement job destined for it.
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