One of the main problems of Belgrade, a consistently growing city with almost two million inhabitants, is the increasing traffic flow, especially between the two sides of the river Sava. Aiming to improve the infrastructure and disburden the existing bridges, a new bridge was opened on the 1st of January 2012.

The Ada bridge, a cable-stayed structure with a 200 m high pylon connects the right Sava bank with New Belgrade. The bridge pylon rests on the tip of the peninsula Ada Ciganlija with a foundation depth of 40 m because of the sandy ground. The total length of the bridge is 964 m, the longest span 376 m. 45 m in width and 20 m above the river, three road lanes, a tram track and a pedestrian lane in each direction are positioned.

Viktor Markelj and Peter Gabrijelčič are responsible for the design of the Ada bridge. As part of the Slovenian company Ponting they won the open tendering out of eleven projects in 2004. The chairman of the jury was Nikola Hajdin, a civil and design engineer of numerous bridges, among them also the last built bridge in Belgrade, the New Railroad Bridge from 1979, which is also a cable-stayed construction.

While the new bridge is being admired, it is also exposed to critique because of the general decision to lead a new ring road through the city, because of the possible consequences on the environment and the adjacent birds area, but also because of the costs. Originally estimated at 119 million Euros, in the end the sum could be four times as much. An expensive, but well worth seeing new landmark of Belgrade.

An earlier version of this text was published in A10 #44. (Text: Vesna Vučinić)