The construction workers laying tarmac over one of the roads. Photo: Swedish Transport Administration
The closed-off section of the E6 motorway north of Malmö is set to open again on Thursday evening, two days earlier than planned. “We have had such incredibly good luck with the weather,” Jens Eisenschmidt, project leader at the Swedish Transport Administration, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper of the rapid pace of work. "Every single moment has gone according to plan and nothing unforeseen has happened which has affected the work," he added in a statement.
The motorway was completely shut at the Alnarp junction on October 11, as the project team prepared to move the two new pre-fabricated bridges into place.
The local traffic controllers had feared that the diversions would lead to heavy congestion, but Göran Holmberg, the local traffic coordinator in the region, said commuters had cut out unnecessary journeys.
"It has been a good closure. Drivers have listened and taken on board the information they have received," he said, adding: "There have been very few accidents."
The team used 18 giant jacks to shunt the bridges on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. With one bridge weighing 5,000 tons and the other 4,000 tons, it was slow going, with the jacks moving at around six to eight metres an hour.
The last seven days have been spent filling and packing the areas where the prefabricated structure meet the road, tarmacing and installing safety barriers.
One of the bridges is to be used for a motorway slipway, and the other for a temporary rail link.
The project is part of a 5 billion kronor upgrade to the railroad between Arlöv and Lund, which will see it expanded from two to four tracks, with a new station built in southern Lund and three others refurbished.
