Rijkswaterstaat will come to Groningen for the umpteenth time on Tuesday with bad news. This raises many questions about the quality and reliability of the civil service.
In the Floreshuis, Rijkswaterstaat Tuesday see what her plans are for the temporary bicycle connection and she shows the first drawings of the new definitive Gerrit Krol bridge over the Van Starkenborgh Canal: a sturdy aunt. Nothing will come of either plan for the time being because the procedures have been delayed (again) and are taking an incomprehensibly long time.
Soap
The most shocking of the soap around the Gerrit Krol Bridge and other bridges in Groningen, residents are (almost) no longer angry at the umpteenth delay. Where you would expect a ‘rebellion’, because that bridge is there for a reason, people shrug their shoulders out of powerlessness.
B and W van Groningen will come into action. They want responsible minister Mark Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management, VVD) to personally intervene. The Gerrit Krolbrug Platform continuously clarifies what needs to be done with the bridge(s) and safety on the Lemmer-Delfzijl waterway.
So far that doesn’t help. Rijkswaterstaat ignored the platform’s wish to build a final bridge that is as low as possible and announced on Tuesday that it will not be ready in 2026, but has been delayed by 1 to perhaps 3 years.
A higher bridge will be built to limit the damage in the event of a collision: in that case, at most, the ship’s wheelhouse will break and the bridge will remain intact. The Platform does not hear much about measures that can prevent collisions on the Lemmer-Delfzijl waterway. According to a 2017 safety report, this requires electronic and other technical and organizational control measures.
Mushroom bridge
At the Paddepoelsterbrug, which in 2018 after a collision – cause: Rijkswaterstaat closed the bridge too early – even seemed to disappear for a while (“No bridge back is also an option”), the municipality intervened. A high footbridge will return (in 2026? 2027?). Extra frustrating: Rijkswaterstaat took over management of the waterway from the province and canceled the plans for lower bridges.
More and more people are no longer surprised by the slow pace. The people of Groningen, in particular, now know all too well that you are in a bad place if the government has to solve your problem.
Other governments and companies also do not always feel very well what their residents and customers are entitled to and compared to the Supplementary Affair, the Asylum Crisis and the Gas File, the problem bridges over the Van Starkenborgh Canal are small beer. Yet it is not surprising that with all the powerlessness, criticism of Rijkswaterstaat is also growing.
Big case
This is precisely what happens at the Gerrit Krol Bridge because it is not a major matter, such as the miscalculations in complex projects (including the Afsluitdijk and the HSL South, which Rijkswaterstaat was in charge of) or the huge backlogs in the maintenance of viaducts, tunnels, bridges. and locks with which the service is regularly in the news.
In Groningen, it is ‘just’ a broken bridge, but it affects almost 20,000 people every day. The movable part of the crucial bridge in the middle of the city has broken. The high fixed footbridges are still there. How hard can it be to build a ramp to one of the footbridges?
Not difficult, as it turns out: the ramp made of scaffolding material can be ready in six months. But Rijkswaterstaat has been working on this for two years now. Tellingly: a foreigner who has only recently lived in Groningen was the most surprised in a reaction.
Ring
Groningen has to do (camps) with Rijkswaterstaat in more places. The Driebondsbrug over the Eemskanaal has been out of order for a long time (high ships and sailboats in particular are affected by this: in exceptional cases, Rijkswaterstaat stops traffic on the ring road to operate the bridge manually).
Speaking of the ring road: Rijkswaterstaat is also in charge of the Aanpak Ring Zuid project in Groningen, which is struggling with delays, miscalculations (the road became hundreds of millions more expensive) and extra nuisance.
That does not help to restore confidence. In theory, Rijkswaterstaat knows how to do that, according to its website: “We involve citizens in a plan and work together with, for example, water boards, municipalities, companies and knowledge institutes on sustainable solutions for a safe, liveable and accessible Netherlands.”
This should ensure a balance between the economy, the environment and the enjoyment of living. But only attention to quality of life and long-term living enjoyment should not be the only goal. This also includes prompt damage repairs and temporary measures to restore quality of life and enjoyment of living as quickly as possible. And that needs to get a lot more attention soon.