Those with long memories may remember our dismay at plans to build a bridge over the Mosel near the famed vineyards of Ürzig. Click on the 'Mosel bridge' tag to see our support of a campaign to stop what we still regard as an unnecessary transport link. As you can see, it goes right through some of Europe's most distinctive wine country.
Knowing we ultimately failed to halt construction, I asked three fellow campaigners for a report on progress and thought that this might be appreciated by anyone interested in German wine (and there seem to be many among visitors to JancisRobinson.com to judge from topics on our Members' forum, including the Which German wine have you drunk this week? thread now running at 2,580 posts).
Katharina Prüm of J J Prüm sent a picture that is unfortunately too small to reproduce here but her cousin Erni Loosen replied, 'Please see enclosed photos of the bridge which is nearly finished. There are only one or two segments missing. As far as I have heard, they are having some problems to get the last pillars fixed securely. And that is exactly what the citizens' initiative was always worrying about: the construction team not being able to install the pillars properly and securely in the steep, sliding hill. Anyway, I have heard that they additionally use a lot more concrete to anchor the bridge. So officially they say the whole project will be finished in 2019, but at the end we all don't know.'
Lead campaigner Sarah Washington reported, 'The bridge platform has been pushed most of the way over, but is not finished yet. There was a recent announcement that it will take an extra year to complete – but seeing as this is an annual announcement, you can probably take that with a pinch of salt!'