Forced to rebuild highway

An engineer misscalculated for five centimeters and the bridge got a bend. And thatīs not how the dept. of Roads in Halland, Sweden, wants itīs new highway. Now the big constructor Skanska is forced to start all over again.

The meaning was that E6 through Halland would be a highway that was good to drive at - it was allso supposed to be beautyful. Estetic roads is the paroll the Road dept. in Halland is working by. And then you canīt approve a bent bridge.At the end of last year, Skanska finished the bridge at Kräinge, about 20 kilometers north of Halmstad.

But when the Road dept. was to inspect the bridge the officialls didnīt find it to be estetically appealling. They found a small bend on the bridge. Even though the construction error has no effect on the traffic, the Road dept. felt it ashamed the bridge and the construction was judged to be a failure. So it was just to rebuild the bridge. The responsibilaty for the bridges bend rests on an engineer at Skanska. When he drew the bridge he misscalculated for five centimeters and when the cement, beton and asfalt was in place the misscalculation was discovered.

- Itīs easy done, is the comment from Skanskaīs Lars Ahlström to the collegues misstake.

Skanska and the Road dept. have been arguing about the misscalculation and the constructors find it difficult to accept the Road dept.īs attitude. But they finally gave in and pu the shovels in the ground again. Since itīs a beauty error the Road dept. allso promised to pay a share of the costs.

This article was published in GT, Gothenburg, August 17:th and translated by Mad Mac

Copyright GT, 1996

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