Residents of Zuidhorn will soon be able to enjoy a clean Bert Swart Bridge again. The province will meet the costs of the municipality of Westerkwartier.
The annoyance about the green railway bridge over the Van Starkenborgh canal between Zuidhorn and Noordhorn is great and has been bothering the Westerkwartier city council for some time.
He wants the bridge, named after former mayor Bert Swart (1956-2017), to be spic and span and sees with sorrow that ProRail is letting it deteriorate.
Just last week, the city council sent alderman Harry Stomphorst (including traffic, Sterk Westerkwartier) back on the road to persuade ProRail to take action. He was instructed to involve the province as well, because they were the principal for the bridge.
Splits
They are now solving the issue together, said deputy Johan Hamster (including traffic, ChristenUnie) in the Provincial Council on Wednesday. “We approach it pragmatically. The bridge is being cleaned and we share the bill with the municipality.” According to him, the costs are limited. Stomphorst previously spoke of 12,000 euros.
Hamster suspects that there will be a discussion about the matter. According to the deputy, the province, municipality and ProRail are in a special dilemma when it comes to the costs of cleaning campaigns.
“ProRail believes that it does not have to maintain the bridge for fear that it will soon have to keep all railway bridges clean. We have a similar point of view: What does a cleaning campaign say about other bridges in the province? And the municipality of Westerkwartier says: Railway bridges are not ours. We are doing it this way now and in the meantime we are discussing similar issues in the future.”