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Oresund Bridge (licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by Hajotthu on Wikimedia Commons).JPGBridge linking Denmark and Sweden closed as cyclists spotted on it
A bridge linking Denmark and Sweden was closed yesterday morning after four people were spotted cycling on it.
Bicycles and pedestrians are banned from the 8-kilometre long Oresund Bridge which features in the television crime series, The Bridge.
The structure forms part of the link between the Swedish city of Malmo with the Danish capital Copenhagen.
It spans the Oresund strait between the coast of Sweden and the man-made island of Peberholm in Denmark, with the rest of the crossing achieved via a 4-kilometre tunnel.
The fourth longest bridge in Europe, it is also the longest one in the world that links two separate countries.
The crossing was closed for around an hour and a half after the four cyclists, heading for Sweden, were spotted on surveillance cameras, reports thelocal.se. It reopened at 6.41am.
“Two people were stopped by police en route while the others came out on the other end of the tunnel at Peberholm,” said a spokesman for the bridge’s operator.
“They began moving across the traffic lanes and railway. We first closed Sweden-bound traffic and then shut down the whole bridge,” he added.
After arresting the cyclists, Danish police said: “We are investigating who these people are. We are finding out where they came from, who they are and what their intentions were.”
It is believed that the four are most likely to have been asylum seekers.
While both Sweden and Denmark are in the Schengen zone, earlier this year border controls on the bridge as a result of a huge increase in the number of people seeking asylum in Sweden, which received 163,000 applications in 2015, most of those in the final six months of the year, and 35,000 being unaccompanied minors.
The Swedish government has described the influx of refugees as “untenable,” adding that it “entails many and major challenges for the Swedish asylum system and for other public services such as access to housing, health and medical care, schools and social welfare.”
> Refugees cycle across borders on children's bikes to avoid dangerous sea crossings
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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11 comments
Willrod's suggestions of cost and wind seem reasonable to me. I can see that the wider the bridge, the greater the effect of wind on causing movement. What I can't see are many people wanting to walk 5 miles along the bridge, and it's no doubt millions of Krona to cater for a few bike-packers, and that's without considering the "joy" of walking/cycling through the 4 km tunnel on the other side of Peberholm. The trains running on the link are fine for those not wishing to drive.
More interestingly: why the fuck was this built without provision for bicycles?
I guess it could get really windy across there?
Also, building a bridge is expensive, so adding a few metres of width would add quite a bit to the cost. It's not just a few metres of extra space, it is also hundred of tonnes to try and suspend!
My guess is they were unable to afford the train or not allowed due to being asylum seekers etc.
I asked precisely that question about the second Severn Crossing (the original bridge has ped/cycle path) and was told "because it doesn't go anywhere" which so gobsmacked me I was incapable of reasoned thought for several minutes.
As for the second point about adding a few metres making it prohibitively expensive, that's just not true and the added cost of providing for cyclists and pedestrians would be marginal. If you didn't proceed without a good economic case, we wouldn't build any new roads or railways. HS2 costs £42 billion, new roads cost £15 bn, neither of which have any economic case at all.
I want cycle provision as much as the next person but I have to agree that the second crossing does just join one bit of mototway with another. The first did have Chepstow near it. and a road network joining at each end so cyclists can actually get to it.
The Humber Bridge cops a lot of wind especially as its across an estuary and rarely shuts to people on foot/bike, it also has two cycle/pedestrian lanes on top of the dual carriageway which is the same amount of motor lanes as the Øresund.
There's no real reason not to have had a cycle lane on either side because given the light useage (about 40% less than the Humber Bridge) there was no need to put a breakdown lane in on either side, these could have being used for a seperate/segregated cycle lane instead.
Pretty untouchable KOM there.
get Saga Noren on the case!
Presumably they intended to get from one end of the bridge to the other
You just never know in this day and age. Just look at what's happened in France and Germany in the last week.
Or, if they weren't asylum seekers, it wouldn't be unimagineable for it to be some kind of protest at the lack of cycling provision?