Restoring the Danube

The massive project to rebuild three bridges across the Danube that were destroyed in the 1999 Kosovo conflict is finally bearing fruit.

Sloboda bridge: Brought down by cruise missiles

Nato missiles struck the bridges in the city of Novi Sad, in northern Serbia, in an attack on the country on 2 April 1999.

All three collapsed into the Danube, causing great problems to the residents, the country and also internationally.

"It was hit by Tomahawk missiles launched from the Adriatic Sea... it collapsed instantly," Nemanja Chalic, the site supervision engineer on the main Sloboda bridge, told BBC World Service's Discovery programme.

But now the last clearance work is being completed on the demolished structures, two bridges are working again, and a deal signed last July gives the go-ahead for the essential restoration needed on the Sloboda.

No experience

Unusually, the body charged with clearing up the Danube at Novi Sad - the Danube Commission - had no previous experience.

This was down to the fact that at the time, Yugoslavia was judged politically unsound by foreign governments

Hazards had to be removed from the river

"Yugoslavia's membership of the UN was suspended, so in a way it was a legal difficulty for the UN to go in," explained Kalin Borisov, director of the clearance project.

"On the other side, Milosevic was still in office and there were very few international organisations or governments who were willing to deal with him."

Consequently, the Danube Commission, being in almost a neutral position, was able to begin its work.

"The Danube Commission was one of the few organisations within Yugoslavia that was still active, and we were maintaining close contact with the authorities in Yugoslavia, so it was a natural vehicle for this project," Mr Borisov added.

It was essential that the work began quickly because of the impact the loss of the bridges was having on Novi Sad.

How it looked before the Nato bombing

"Novi Sad is a city of around 250,000 inhabitants, and it lies on both sides of the river," explained Dejan Jansa, Serbian Ambassador to Hungary and also a key member of the Danube Commission.

"The bridges of this river are of vital interest."

As well as causing major disruption to the citizens of Novi Sad, the amount of rubble in the Danube had a massive impact economically, too.

With all three bridges lying on the river bed, only the lightest, smallest ships were now able to navigate the Danube.

The industry directly lost 1m euros every day as a result of the disruption.

Massive task

"It is an enormous amount of debris that we had to clear," Kalin Borisov told Discovery.

"Our task was further complicated by the expected presence of unexploded bombs which were very difficult to locate, because all the bridges are structures with a lot of steel in them, so the usual metal detection wouldn't work.

"On top of that the visibility in the river is very little - about 20 cm - so we had to have divers on practically every spot who were working almost blindfold."

And the work was further complicated because of the time delay between the bridges' collapse and their restoration, which meant much of the material became buried in sediment.

A pontoon bridge has carried traffic across the river during rebuilding

One result was that the structure of the bridges began changing the profile of the river - at some spots it became 12 metres deeper than before, presenting yet another serious engineering challenge.

While cranes were able to take some parts away, larger parts had to be cut up under water. Now, however, that work is nearly done.

Where once lay twisted remnants of steel and concrete, lush expanses of grass now line the riverbank.

"On the other side is a park that is loved by the citizens of Novi Sad, and we want to leave them a place that they can really feel belongs to them," Mr Borisov said.

And an allocation of 40m euros to repair the Sloboda means that now, apart from time, little should stand in the way of the full completion of the restoration project.

"The fact that the bridges are being built and restored is welcomed by the citizens," said Boris Novakovic, the mayor of Novi Sad.

"This is going to make the life in our city normal again."

All images from the Danube Commission.