Incubator escapee wiki

Bridge to nowhere

Article Discussion
Revision as of 15:35, 22 May 2025 by imported>KiranBOT (removed AMP tracking from URLs (details) (report error) v2.2.7s)
(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:More citations needed

File:Soda Frohlinde.jpg
A highway bridge near Castrop-Rauxel, Germany – built in 1978 but not connected on either end
File:Overpass to nowhere in Summit, New Jersey.jpg
CitationClass=web }}</ref> walled off on both ends
File:Overpass bridge, Vizafogó railway.jpg
A former railway bridge over the Váci út in Újpest, Budapest, Hungary – with its rail line defunct in the early 1990s, the cityside approach of the bridge was demolished to create space for construction.

A bridge to nowhere is a bridge where one or both ends are broken, incomplete, or unconnected to any roads. If it is an overpass or an interchange, the term overpass to nowhere or interchange to nowhere may be used respectively.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

OriginsEdit

There are five main origins for these bridges:

  • The bridge was never completed for reasons such as cost or disputed property rights.
  • One or both of the bridge's ends have collapsed or have been destroyed, for example, by earthquake, storm, flood, landslide, or war.
  • The bridge is no longer used, but was not demolished because of the cost; for example, the bridges on an abandoned railway line.
  • The bridge is completed, but the streets connecting the bridge are not completed.
  • The bridge or any other part of the construction can be regarded as a pork barrel project aimed at useless fund spending or money laundering with minor or negligible public usefulness.

Metaphoric useEdit

The term "bridge to nowhere" may be used by political opponents to describe a bridge (or proposed bridge) that serves low-population areas at high cost, usually characterizing it as an instance of pork barrel spending.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

By extension, it may refer to any undertaking perceived as both pointless and costly.

Incomplete and damaged bridgesEdit

ArgentinaEdit

  • The two-lane elevated concrete vehicle bridge across the Cosquin River in Cosquin, province of Cordoba, Argentina, that was intended to connect Calle Pedro Ortiz, to the west, to Avenida Capitan Aviador Omar Castillo, to the east, was never opened. The span of the bridge itself was complete, but it was never connected to the road system on either end, and the ends of the span remained blocked by steep piles of rubble. In lieu of the elevated vehicle bridge, the small, low Onofre Marimon Bridge connected the two streets for small volumes of pedestrian traffic. In 2020 it was finally connected at both ends and open to vehicle traffic,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the lower bridge was demolished. The remains of the bridge can still be seen at Puente Mercedes Sosa.

BelgiumEdit

  • Rue Emile Pathé/Emile Pathéstraat in Forest, Brussels (Template:Coord), was originally intended to be part of the southern arc of the R0 Brussels motorway ring, which was never built owing to opposition from local residents. It now functions mostly as a car park.


BulgariaEdit

  • Bulgaria's capital city of Sofia has a highspeed city bypass called Northern Speed Tangent, which upon completion had three bridges with two clover-style interchanges. These three bridges were built with the intention to connect the north neighbourhoods of Sofia, however since 2016, when the high speed bypass was built, they have not been connected to the city and are currently bridges to nowhere. Plans are being developed for finally connecting the bridges to the city proper, but due to constant changes and disputed between the local government and road agencies, these plans are frozen.

CanadaEdit

  • Port Nelson Bridge, an isolated rail bridge near Port Nelson, Manitoba. The connecting rail line was never finished due to labour and material shortages, a lack of financial or political support, and high cost. The envisioned port was also poorly designed and was found to require excessive dredging due to significant sand bars. The project was greatly criticized by several politicians (the media calling it a "gigantic blunder").<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Ontario Highway 69 south of Ontario Highway 522 near Grundy Provincial Park. The 2 bridges are for the southbound and northbound lanes of the future Ontario Highway 400 connecting Greater Sudbury and Toronto.
  • Gaglardi Way in Burnaby, British Columbia, ended suddenly as an overpass of Highway 1 at the south end at just a forest, due to a residential subdivision beyond the point with two cloverleaf ramps that were blocked off, now removed along with the dead end peculiarity in the 2000's.

ChinaEdit

Czech RepublicEdit

  • The Borovsko Bridge, an unfinished motorway bridge from the 1930s near Borovsko, part of Bernartice municipality, Central Bohemian Region.
  • There are several bridges to nowhere, started to be built as a part of extraterritorial highway Vienna-Wrocław (so-called "Hitler's highway"), which remain unfinished and unconnected to the road network.

FranceEdit

File:St Benezet bridge - Avignon, France - panoramio.jpg
Pont Saint-Bénézet in Avignon, France

GermanyEdit

File:Soda Bruecke bei Euskirchen.jpg
Soda-Brücke Euskirchen

The colloquial name for a bridge to nowhere in Germany is "Soda-Brücke" (a pun on "so da" = "just there"). Many of the bridges were built in the 1970s as part of the Autobahn network, but the oil crisis and rising environmental consciousness slowed many highway extensions.

HondurasEdit

  • The Bridge of Rising Sun in Choluteca, completed in 1998, became a bridge to nowhere the same year when Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras. While the bridge itself survived with minor damage, the roads on either end got entirely washed away and the Choluteca River had carved itself a new channel on the side, leaving the bridge to span dry ground. It eventually got reconnected to the highway in 2003.

Hong KongEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> until a new offramp was built in 2020 to connect the K72 flyover to Template:Ill (Road D1) and opened to traffic in September 2021.

HungaryEdit

  • A former railway bridge sits over the Váci út in Budapest. Its rail line was disconnected in the early 1990s, and the east side of the bridge was demolished to make room for new construction. (Template:Coord) A second bridge sits over a minor road on the same rail line to the southwest, and the former station is now a parking lot.

IndiaEdit

IndonesiaEdit

  • Also, on Solo-Kertosono Toll Road, Donohudan 1 bridge between Adi Sumarmo Airport Toll Gate & Ngemplak Toll Gate. To be exact, at Km 501+300, is a bridge to nowhere, the purpose is unknown. (Template:Coord)

ItalyEdit

LatviaEdit

NepalEdit

New ZealandEdit

NorwayEdit

PhilippinesEdit

  • The Loboc Bridge in the town of Loboc, Bohol. A steel and concrete bridge which commenced construction in the 1970s but was left unfinished allegedly due to opposition from the Loboc parishioners since the bridge might destroy the 400-year old Loboc Church.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

PolandEdit

File:Lisowo. The viaduct of the old highway. It was built during World War II. The German Nazis never finished it (3).jpg
near Lisowo, demolished 2019
  • Several structures on unfinished Olimpijka motorway. Its construction started in 1976 with the propaganda goal of completing it in time for the Moscow Olympics in 1980 (hence its unofficial name, as part of Berlin-Moscow connection). Because of the economic crisis which hit the country in the late 1970s and continued throughout the 1980s, only a small section was opened. Construction of another stretch resumed only in 2001, as a part of A2 motorway. Since 2010 the plan was to finish the whole link between the border with Germany and Warsaw, this time for the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships. This meant that weathered remains of 1970s structures had to be demolished in the 2010s.
  • Several structures on unfinished Berlinka, Nazi Germany's Reichsautobahn Berlin-Königsberg started in 1936. Some of them have been demolished as late as the 2010s.

RomaniaEdit

  • Ciurel Bridge is an unfinished infrastructure project located in Bucharest, Romania. It gained significant attention and earned the nickname "Bridge to Nowhere" or "Bridge to Nothing" on social media. The construction was initiated as part of an expansion towards the A1 Highway, but the remaining section of the project, an 8.3-kilometer road, has not been built. Currently, the bridge only serves as a left turn and resolves the traffic issue for those traveling from Virtuții Road to Splaiul Independenței. Pro Infrastructura, an organization that monitors infrastructure projects, argues that the Bucharest City Hall should have made a decision regarding the continuation of the road to the A1 Highway, covering the distance of 8.3 kilometers. Without this connection, the Virtuții Junction (Ciurel Passage) does not effectively address the traffic congestion, as it was originally intended to alleviate the traffic on Iuliu Maniu Boulevard. Sorin Ioniță, an activist who has closely followed the project, criticized it, stating, "This passage will cross a T-intersection on a picturesque bridge with ramps, descend on the other side, and lead the cars to the exact same place as before, Virtuții Road. All at an impressive cost of over 400 million lei. This road passage in Sector 6 is probably the most useless and foolish investment in Romania since '89,". The construction of the passage began in 2010 and was initially scheduled for completion in December 2014. Delays in the project were caused by litigation and financial constraints.

RussiaEdit

File:Pavlovsky Posad Parizh bridge 06.JPG
The bridge of Vachevskaya Street in Pavlovsky Posad
  • A two-lane vehicle bridge in Pavlovsky Posad, completed in 2011, continues the minor Vachevskaya Street in the west across the Vokhna River. In the east, there is a dead end, as no vehicle road has been built there, with only a footpath branching off to another street. The bridge may become integrated into traffic once a new road tunnel under railway is completed nearby, and together they would replace a problematic level crossing.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> The bridge was open for vehicle traffic in July 2015.<ref>Губернатор проинспектировал строительство поликлиники, открыл путепровод и встретился с жителями в Павловском Посаде Template:In lang mosreg.ru, 2015-07-22; Retrieved 2016-04-06</ref>

File:Автомобильный путепровод над планировавшимся железнодорожным карьером 2.jpg
The bridge in Porozovo

SlovakiaEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Next to the viaduct are two finished tunnels without any connection to railways. The tunnel near the village of Slavošovce is Template:Convert long, and the tunnel near Kopráš is Template:Convert long. These tunnels to nowhere were also never used, because railway construction ended in 1948 before its completion.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

SpainEdit

  • Bridge to Nowhere in San Martín de la Vega (built 1933, originally projected in 1926). It was damaged in March 1947 after severe flooding, and it was never repaired. Nowadays only a few sections of it stay in place, and the surroundings are now a recreational site.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} Anales del Instituto de Estudios Históricos del Sur de Madrid "Jiménez de Gregorio", {{#if:1695-1514|Template:Catalog lookup link{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}|Template:Error-small}}, Nº 1, 2000, pp. 87–110. Universidad Carlos III.</ref> (Template:Coord)

TaiwanEdit

United KingdomEdit

File:Old railway bridge at Blandford Forum.jpg
The former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway bridge at Blandford Forum. Following closure of the line, the span over the river (right) was demolished, and the earth embankment on the left was reused for nearby flood defence work, leaving it as a "bridge to nowhere".
  • Blandford Forum former railway bridge.
  • Bewley Street Footbridge, in Colliers Wood, London, constructed in 2007, was blocked off at one end due to a dispute over the cost of building an access ramp.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> The ramp was finally completed in June 2015 and renamed "Gam Gurung Bridge" after a local councillor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Coord

  • Barracks Road and Cavalry Street bridges north of the A671 Westway in Burnley, Lancashire, cross the East Lancashire railway line and were stopped up at both ends following the construction of the M65 in 1981.
  • An abandoned highway bridge at Template:Coord. It was planned for the M23 to extended further north from its abrupt ending as part of the London Ringways scheme. Some of the southern end is still accessible and used as a depot for highway maintenance, but most of it is fenced off, notably when the A23 and open M23 pass under wide bridges.
  • One part of the Borough Road, Birkenhead A5227 flyover adjoining to Queensway Tunnel is incomplete.
  • M8 Bridge to Nowhere, two separate bridges over the M8 motorway in Glasgow: one eventually had an office block constructed on it; the other, originally built in the 1970s, remained unfinished until July 2013.
  • A stub protruding from a road bridge across the A1020 around Beckton which forms part of a southbound exit. It was planned to be part of a cancelled approach to the East London River Crossing.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

United StatesEdit

File:Pittsburgh - "Bridge to Nowhere".jpg
Fort Duquesne Bridge in 1966 before the ramps were completed

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> In May 2014, the Jeffersonville, Indiana, ramp opened, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to travel between downtown Jeffersonville and Waterfront Park in Louisville.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Bridge to Nowhere (San Gabriel Mountains) (built 1936), an isolated road bridge over the San Gabriel River in southern California. The connecting road was never completed. The bridge is a popular destination for hikers.
  • A pair of unused overpasses near what is now the southern terminus of Connecticut State Route 11. These bridges were built as part of the original plan for Route 11, which would have seen it extend further south to I-95 in New London. Construction was halted in 1972 due to lack of funding.
  • Fort Duquesne Bridge (built 1963), a road bridge over the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which ended mid-air until the ramps were completed in 1969.
  • Miles Glacier Bridge (built 1910), also known as the "Million Dollar Bridge", was converted from railroad use to motor vehicle use; It is at the northern end of the unfinished Copper River Highway near Cordova, Alaska. Construction stopped in 1964 when an earthquake damaged the Template:Convert bridge. Although since repaired and reopened, the bridge is nonetheless currently of limited utility due to damage at other points along the route.
  • Hoan Bridge (built 1973), a Template:Convert road bridge over the Milwaukee River in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was unused until access roads were completed in 1977, was lacking freeway connections at the southern end until 1998, and was "going nowhere again" for two months while closed for major repairs after a span partially collapsed in December 2000.
  • Mebane's Bridge is a road bridge over the Dan River in Rockingham County on the outskirts of the town of Eden, North Carolina, which was at the center of the landmark Luten Bridge Co. vs. Rockingham County lawsuit that made jurisprudence in 1929 when the contractor continued work on it well after the contract to build it was rescinded and subsequently sued to be reimbursed for this work.
  • Pier 19 (demolished 2012) of a proposed second span of the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan. No second span had ever been approved for this privately owned bridge, largely because the proposal would dump excessive traffic onto Windsor city surface streets, but its owners built ramps for the proposed span in an attempt to counter an internationally supported proposal for a Detroit River International Crossing to the Windsor-Essex Parkway further downriver.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The unauthorized ramp was removed in 2012 by court order.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Bridges to unpopulated or low-population areasEdit

AustraliaEdit

  • John Pirie Bridge in Port Pirie was built in the 1970s to encourage development of industry on the other side of Port Pirie Creek. No development ensued; the bridge leads only to a few gravel roads otherwise unconnected.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CanadaEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nicknamed the bridge to nowhere due to lack of development at the time of construction.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>

IrelandEdit

File:Harry Blaney Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 1322470.jpg
Harry Blaney Bridge, Ireland

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2014, local paper The Donegal Daily admitted that the bridge was "still rarely used."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

MalaysiaEdit

  • The Bunting Island Bridge in Yan district, Kedah. The Template:Convert bridge that connect from mainland to an uninhabited Bunting Island. Build around 2002–2005, the bridge cost MYR120 million.

MaltaEdit

File:Malta - Valletta - Triq il-Lanca - St. Elmo Bridge+Valletta Breakwater+Lighthouse 02 ies.jpg
The St. Elmo Bridge in Valletta, Malta has been called a bridge to nowhere since it only leads to a breakwater and a small lighthouse

RussiaEdit

  • The Russky Bridge in Vladivostok was criticised as a "bridge to nowhere", costing about one billion US dollars and serving an island where only 5,000 people live.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • A four-lane vehicle overpass across the Moscow Ring Road at kilometer 83 (sometimes called the Molokovsky Overpass) continues Molokova Street in the Lianozovo District of Moscow outside the city. Molokova Street is in a gated community with only local traffic allowed; at the other end, the bridge serves only the Lianozovo Cemetery with a small parking lot next to it, coming to a dead end before a forest. As a result, the overpass only receives significant traffic on prayer for the dead days such as Saturday of Souls.

United StatesEdit

Obsolete bridges and approachesEdit

CanadaEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> it now goes nowhere. A bascule bridge on the same defunct line crosses the UNESCO-listed Rideau Canal at Smiths Falls, Ontario; that rail bridge sits permanently opened to marine traffic but is protected as part of a listed historic site.<ref>"New canal head may change hiring methods", Ottawa Citizen, Nov 8, 1983 (railway bridge is second-last paragraph)</ref>

  • CN's Lachine Canal Swing Bridge in Montreal, Canada, an abandoned railway bridge that has been left in the 'open' position in the middle of the Lachine Canal between its successor rail bridge and the Wellington Bridge.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

United Arab EmiratesEdit

  • In the United Arab Emirates, a suspension bridge links Abu Dhabi city and Hodariyat island. The bridge was opened in 2012, but vehicles are not allowed to use it. It appeared to be a waste of money.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Recently the bridge has opened; the approach road has been extended on the island, and a parking lot has been paved. There are also some small cafes there.

United StatesEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • A bridge that once carried West Mound Street over I-70/I-71 in Columbus, Ohio was abandoned in the 1990s due to redevelopment projects that left West Mound Street with two discontinuous sections. The bridge subsequently became a homeless camp before being cleared by the city of Columbus for safety reasons. The bridge is slated to be demolished in 2022Template:Update inline by ODOT without a replacement as part of a widening project of the I-70/I-71 corridor in Downtown Columbus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Bridges originally criticized as "a bridge to nowhere"Edit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Sister project Template:Reflist

Template:Bridge footer

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Bridge_to_nowhere&oldid=227219"