Ústí nad Labem plans to sell the Marian Bridge

Ústí nad Labem - The city of Ústí nad Labem plans to sell the Mariánský Bridge, which was built from its budget for more than 750 million crowns. The maintenance of the bridge costs the city ten million crowns annually, which is why it wants to transfer it to the Directorate of Roads and Highways (ŘSD), with which it has already started negotiations. This is reported by today's regional supplement of Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD).
    Ústí nad Labem is the only city that owns the bridge. It was officially opened nine years ago, and according to Mayor Jan Kubata, someone else should take care of it now. If the transfer is unsuccessful, the city will continue to take care of the structure. "We will not negotiate with anyone other than the state; no one will take that bridge from Ústí," Kubata told MfD. If everything goes smoothly, the bridge could be transferred by the end of 2008, according to the mayor.
    The Mariánský Bridge was officially opened in 1998 after five years of construction. It cost the city treasury more than three-quarters of a billion, almost twice what the original plans were. The final amount at that time represented nearly the annual budget of the city. It thus became the most expensive transportation construction financed by the city in the republic since 1948.
    In 1999, the bridge was selected among the ten most beautiful structures of world architecture of the 90s, where steel was used. It ranked among such gems as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Millennium Dome in London, and the Twin Towers skyscrapers.