The Strömsund Bridge can pass closed for months - the truck still on the bridge

On Monday, the Swedish Transport Administration invited to a press conference in Strömsund due to the fact that the bridge over Ströms Vattudal has been unusable since September 29.

For the people of Strömsund, it is a disaster - so also for the extensive heavy traffic that goes along the important European road 45 - a road that reaches both Norway and Finland. Of course, all socially important traffic is also affected; emergency services, school buses, home care - all are referred to the roughly 3.5-mile-long diversion route.

- We demand that the diversion route be equipped and secured. It is about a dirt road that must be both widened and reinforced for it to work. Even that road has already been closed twice since the bridge collapsed - this due to accidents, one with a bus and one with a tanker, said Susanne Hansson, chairwoman of the municipal board in Strömsund (S), when she got the floor.

Prior to that, Trafikverket's director general Roberto Maiorana had done his best to explain how complicated the situation is:

- We are doing our utmost to make this happen as quickly as possible. But just getting the truck off the bridge is a very difficult operation. There is a risk that the bridge will suffer other damage when it is salvaged. We have to trust and wait for our experts' calculations, he said.

At present, the Swedish Transport Administration has managed to get two ferries that will eventually ply the strait, perhaps within a few days.

The question, however, is who will be able to use them. The County Administrative Board and the municipality work together to identify which socially critical transports should be prioritized because the ferries will not be able to accommodate all traffic.

- The importance of E45 cannot be overestimated. It has significance for our entire surrounding world against the background of our NATO membership, it means a lot for all domestic transport and above all it means everything for the people of Strömsund, stated Marita Ljung, Governor of Jämtland.

The Swedish Transport Administration will invest large resources in securing the roughly 3.5-mile-long, gravel diversion road. This is not because one does not know how long this situation will last.

- It's about months, not weeks. I can't be more precise than that. What we know is that the bridge is still moving, said Roberto Maiorana.

The social democratic municipal councilor Susanne Hansson praised the patience of the local residents, while at the same time she warned that things are about to run out.

- We see how people help each other and shuttle each other with private boats across the strait, we ride together on the diversion route and try to find solutions. But I have learned that people are very tired of this, she said, underlining the requirement that the diversion route be made as robust as possible.

Can the bridge be saved at all?, asked a local reporter on the spot.

- I don't want to speculate on that, answered Roberto Maiorana.