The safe bicycle connection between Linde and Zuidwolde is finished. Road users will soon be able to use a separate bicycle path and a special bicycle bridge to cross the N48. To the delight of local residents, they have been calling for measures to make the route safer for years.
Local Interest Linde has been involved in the issue for years and is pleased that the route is there. “Next to the bicycle bridge is an ecoduct. Cyclists had to share it with motorized traffic, which in turn led to dangerous situations,” says chairman Martijn Mulder.
Student Hugo de Jonge can confirm that. “I’ve seen it go wrong a few times,” he says. “There were cars that almost drove the children off their bicycles at 90 kilometers per hour.” “It was so bad that parents eventually took their children to school by car,” adds Mulder. “And that’s really a pity.”
Now the bicycle bridge is next to the viaduct, which makes it a lot safer.
For years, Linde insisted on a safe cycling route. Now that more and more secondary school students from Zuidwolde are cycling towards Dedemsvaart via the Linderweg, the same call has also become louder in Zuidwolde.
“It took some years,” Alderman Mark Turksma agrees. “But then you also have something. I was promised that this bicycle bridge will be there for a hundred years.”
The first calls for emergency measures date from 2012. A few years later in 2016, part of the cycle path was built. A year later, the call was made to also look at a safe bicycle connection over the N48. There was a lot of discussion about what exactly that should look like.
In the end, the bicycle bridge was chosen as it is now. In total, the amount for the project would amount to just under 2.5 million euros, of which about 1.3 million euros had to be paid by the municipality of De Wolden.
The government provided a subsidy of half a million euros, and the province also provided additional funding to the municipality. But the arrival of the bridge took longer than expected. This is partly due to rising costs of materials. For example, the project would still cost 165,000 euros more. The municipality eventually agreed to make this additional amount available.
“Drenthe profiles itself as the cycling province. The municipality of De Wolden calls itself the cycling municipality. Then you should not cut back on safety on an essential cycling route,” Turksma concludes.