It’s never simply by accident that important cities around the world are built on the banks of major rivers, which obviously harks back to the days when the world’s trade was dominated by ships and shipping. In those days there may well have been less traffic congestion, but at least they did not suffer too much from one of today’s major headaches – the huge bottlenecks that occur at river crossing points. It’s now a known fact that millions of man hours are wasted every single day as commuters wait patiently (or often not) simply to make their obligatory river crossing.

Having lived in London myself for at least 20 years, I know that this was a great frustration for a huge number of commuters, and successive governments were always seeking solutions and considering new river crossings.

Here in Spain our own Provincial capital, Pontevedra, actually derives it’s name from a river crossing. A part Latin, part Galician translation gives us Ponte Vetera, meaning ‘old bridge’. In modern day Pontevedra old bridge refers to an existing Roman bridge that crosses the Lérez river (now known as the Burgos bridge).

Now I’m not implying for one second that Pontevedra’s traffic problems are on a par with London or New York, but we do, sometimes, have as many as six cars waiting to cross the river at peak times (just joking, it’s actually seven!) A few years ago, when our local govenments still had money to spend, they did not really need an excuse to plan new building projects, and so a new bridge for Pontevedra was born. Despite recent cuts in government spending the construction was already well under way, and we are now at a point where the road deck almost meets in the middle. What difference it will make to traffic flow only time will tell. I will update my blog when we have the answer…..

It’s never simply by accident that important cities around the world are built on the banks of major rivers, which obviously harks back to the days when the world’s trade was dominated by ships and shipping. In those days there may well have been less traffic congestion, but at least they did not suffer too much from one of today’s major headaches – the huge bottlenecks that occur at river crossing points. It’s now a known fact that millions of man hours are wasted every single day as commuters wait patiently (or often not) simply to make their obligatory river crossing.

Having lived in London myself for at least 20 years, I know that this was a great frustration for a huge number of commuters, and successive governments were always seeking solutions and considering new river crossings.

Here in Spain our own Provincial capital, Pontevedra, actually derives it’s name from a river crossing. A part Latin, part Galician translation gives us Ponte Vetera, meaning ‘old bridge’. In modern day Pontevedra old bridge refers to an existing Roman bridge that crosses the Lérez river (now known as the Burgos bridge).

Now I’m not implying for one second that Pontevedra’s traffic problems are on a par with London or New York, but we do, sometimes, have as many as six cars waiting to cross the river at peak times (just joking, it’s actually seven!) A few years ago, when our local govenments still had money to spend, they did not really need an excuse to plan new building projects, and so a new bridge for Pontevedra was born. Despite recent cuts in government spending the construction was already well under way, and we are now at a point where the road deck almost meets in the middle. What difference it will make to traffic flow only time will tell. I will update my blog when we have the answer…..