The shaky bridges slowed down Germany's transportation and economy. Can more money solve this problem?

Bad Schandau, Germany (AP) – Germany's reputation for efficiency has been hit by concrete shock. Cracks and collapses are also the biggest economic risks in Europe.

The EU's most populous members are trying to solve the problem of dilapidated infrastructure, including about 4,000 bridges that need to be modernized or replaced over the next decade. Too often, unexpected fears about the state of the bridge can lead to a brief closure of the closure, resulting in a local deadlock. Sometimes, it's worse than that.

Cracks and collapses

In Dresden, a bridge dating back to 1971 collapsed in the middle of September due to corrosion. No one was injured, but the collapsed traffic flowed in and temporarily stopped transport on the Elbe River. The remains of the Corolla Bridge have not been removed yet.

The collapse prompted inspection of similarly designed bridges, including those in Bad Schandau, a small town in Elbe, near the Czech border. It suddenly closed in all traffic in November as a precautionary measure that allowed locals to cross the nearest road for 20 km (12 1/2 miles) until reopening on Thursday – despite weighing 7.5 tons.

“The closure of this bridge is an absolute disaster for the people of Bad Schandau,” said Steffen Marx, a civil engineering professor. “It's the classic deadlock…it's the only crossing along nearly 50 kilometers (30 miles).

Even in the case of Bad Schandau, Berliners flourished in the sudden closure of a bridge on a busy highway after detecting an enlarged crack. It will be removed soon now. The power outages are struggling in much of the capital, forcing weeks-long closure of commuter rail lines and prompting the government to cough up 150 million euros ($164 million) for emergency reconstruction.

Saving and squandering

“The Germans are very good engineers. You would think everything works,” said Monika Schnitzer, head of the government's independent economic advisory group. “At the same time, the Germans are also very good at savings – they have been kept for a long time, especially on infrastructure on bridges.”

Germany's potential new government took the solution even before it took office. Last month, the to-becoming coalition under Conservative leader Friedrich Merz pushed for a 500 billion euro ($551 billion) fund ($551 billion) fund funded by borrowing to dump money into squeaky infrastructure over the next 12 years. Politicians believe that as part of an effort to restore economic stagnant growth.

Not only is this a bridge: there are aging schools, but after years of underinvestment, the National Railway has begun a thorough but destructive overhaul of the main routes. Complaints about frequent delays and collapses in railways have become a national movement.

The Alliance Agreement on Wednesday introduced that “operational infrastructure is the basis for our prosperity, social cohesion and sustainability. Therefore, Germany needs a booster booster that is suitable for hospitals, schools and bridges as well as bridges and railways.”

On the road, it promises to provide “resolve the backlog of renovation on bridges and tunnels.”

The outgoing government said that a large amount of bridge modernization has been carried out under a plan since 2022. But there are still many things to do.

Not just money

“There is money now that it can actually generate growth very quickly,” Schnizer said. “But what is really needed is that the money is spent very quickly. To do so, we need a faster planning and approval process than so far.”

She noted that Germany has shown that it can speed up the planning bureaucracy, especially after Russia established its first liquefied natural gas terminal in the months after its full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and then supplied pipeline natural gas to Germany.

Outgoing government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit pointed out this week that the availability of construction companies and machines is a barrier to rapid repairs and said Germany is “at its capacity limit.”

Marx said the situation in Germany's infrastructure was “very critical”.

“It’s not because we’re underinvestment – ​​that’s one of the reasons,” he said. “But from my point of view, the main reason is that we’re not taking enough care. We just don’t maintain the infrastructure and everything we do in private buildings is clean, repair, strengthen, and we do too little.”

He added that a huge new infrastructure fund is necessary, but he fears that the money will only tear down and rebuild the worst bridges, rather than ensuring that others will never enter the state.

“You can't win political points by maintaining and saving – it's boring, and it's not really spectacular,” Marx said. “But when you ignore it, it becomes spectacular.”

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Geir Moulson of Berlin contributed to the report.