Serious cracks forced the closure of the Servia Bridge in northern Greece

Following major cracks in four tendons between the sixth and seventh piers, the Servia Bridge in Western Macedonia in northern Greece, has been closed to all vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons.

The Servia Bridge is almost 1.4 kilometers long, it was built in 1975 and is one of Greece's largest bridges. The bridge is situated 15 kilometers southeast of Kozani and 7 kilometers northwest of Servia. It is a section of the Kozani-Larissa National Road.

The damage concerns significant cracks that were discovered during the thorough and in-depth special technical inspection conducted in the autumn of last year by Panagiotis Panetsos, an engineer for Egnatia Odos SA, and Konstantinos Katakalos, a professor at the Polytechnic School of AUTH. Mr. Katakalos claims that strong pressures that exceeded 350 tons locally and were applied to these points many years ago caused the damage, which is severe in its intensity. Thus, the head of the Kozani Police Directorate, according to the General Police Directorate of Western Macedonia, made the choice to halt traffic.

The bridge is anticipated to be opened to traffic in April after the strengthening work is finished. This has not yet been formally confirmed, so the works may be delayed. According to the same announcement, the bridge's most recent inspection was conducted in 1995 following the May quake of that year, while " after the repair work of the serious cracks, a major overall maintenance of the High Bridge of Servia will follow".