European Parliament event on rebuilding of Korakou Bridge

The participants will include Infrastructure and Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis and Culture Minister Myrsini Zorba, who will present the Programme Contract for the rebuilding of the bridge, while other speakers will be Citizen Protection Minister Olga Gerovassili, National Technical University of Athens Rector Ioannis Golias and local authority officials.

Inextricably linked with the history of the Acheloos Valley and the surrounding villages and towns, the Korakou Bridge was the longest stone-built single-arch bridge in the Balkans. In the initial phase, the work to restore the bridge will be financed from the Public Investments Programme, while procedures will be set in motion to secure joint funding from the EU.

An extremely difficult and complex project, the restoration of the collapsed bridge is expected to cost 13.6 million euros and will require the cooperation of ministries, local authorities and the technical experts undertaking the restoration. The bridge was blown up during the civil war in Greece in 1949 and the remaining sections of its supports were washed away during a major flood on the Acheloos River in 2015.

The bridge, built entirely of stone, had a total length of 62 metres and was two metres wide at the top, while its arch, built on two supports on either side of the river, had a span of 46 metres that was 24 metres high at the centre. It was constructed by local artisans between 1515 and 1540.

The event will be transmitted live on the internet at the web-page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUk7U7-TZm0