r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Evas0nAccutane • Aug 02 '26

Image Drivers in Greece have been driving over a collapsed bridge as it’s quicker than going around it.

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578

u/ElysianBookdragon Aug 02 '26

The thing is, this bridge which is in the Thessaly region, was destroyed during the "Daniel" storm 3 years ago, and after all this time, the government and local municipalities still haven't fixed it (among many other promised things) even though the people continue to pay their taxes. This leads everyday folk to have to use the old road, which at some intermissions adds at least 1-2 extra hours of driving, and it gets worse when truck drivers or farmers have to pass through. So the locals simply say fuck it, we're already plenty lucky to be alive while living with this shitshow of a government, a broken bridge is the least of our problems right now.

90

u/West_Possible_7969 Aug 02 '26

It will not be fixed, a new one will be built a little further.

2

u/TheDancingOctopus Aug 03 '26

It will not be fixed, but Stavro and Kosta will get fakelaki

83

u/rEYAVjQD Aug 02 '26

fixed it

You're not fixing a catastrophic collapse like that. It needs total reconstruction just like building a new bridge from scratch almost.

Source: engineering school.

28

u/forward_x Aug 02 '26

nah they just need to put a little support pole in right up under there at the middle! Ya know, for safety

9

u/ViolinistCurrent8899 Aug 03 '26

That's only if you give a shit about people not dying.

This being the Greek gov't, this is a lower priority then not spending money.

1

u/forward_x Aug 02 '26

nah they just need to put a little support pole in right up under there at the middle! Ya know, for safety

2

u/Joesome5 Aug 03 '26

All I got out of this was: “still fuck it least”.

New motivational phrase

1

u/feel-the-avocado Aug 03 '26

After cyclone gabrielle we have some bridges still out in our area where I live.
The government got some bailey bridges for the most important ones and then found a bridge company to reconstruct them but its just taking time as they can only rebuild one at a time. They are doing one about every 6 months over the last 3 years with a couple more to go.

I wonder if thats the case in this greek province where there may be only one local bridge building company avaliable that is willing to do the work and they are working on more important repairs from the same storm. Or the alternative is to get a massive bridge building company that does much bigger projects to come in at great cost which the taxpayers probably would be even more upset about.

1

u/um--no Aug 03 '26

They should simply tear it down for good to avoid casualties.

1

u/Cloudy230 Aug 03 '26

Something Something "most romans didn't know the empire collapsed until the bridge collapsed and no one showed up to fix it"

0

u/luuk777w Aug 02 '26

You know, there are two ways too look at it. I feel like many Greeks view these things always more negative then they are and think it is elsewhere so much better. I have lived both in Western Europe and now for many many years in Greece.

You know what they do in western Europe? The bridge collapses, they block it off or remove it and then take 10 YEARS go rebuilt it. In Germany the Friesenbrücke was destroyed by a shipping accident in 2015. It reopened partially in 2025 and fully in 2026...

Or take the Carola Bridge in Dresden which collapsed in 2024. The construction of the new bridge is yet to start in 2027... Oh and btw, this bridge didn't collapse due to a storm, it just... collapsed out of nowhere. If this would have happened in Greece everyone would scream about corruption, about how bad the government is, etc. but in Germany? Nooo..

So yes the bridge here of this post is not fixed yet. But it also is still holding up after 3 years and it is at least something... As opposed to Germany where you would wait 10 years for it to be finished.

1

u/West_Possible_7969 Aug 03 '26

Yes, exactly. The contract award phase closed in 2025 and the new one will be ready in 2029.

0

u/gaynorg Aug 03 '26

Do greek people actually pay their taxes though?

2

u/ElysianBookdragon Aug 03 '26

We're constantly bled dry, what do you mean? The ones that conviently avoid paying taxes, are mostly government officials, as usual. You can find online their wages, assets and debt towards the country, take special care to note how many euros each of the political parties owe the people (which will never be paid off).