The debate around whether or not to knock down the half built bridges on the main road which runs the length of Menorca, shouldn’t be about safety or legality as the alternatives on offer are both legal and safe, as the reports commissioned by local government confirm. That the report advises against demolishing the bridges is hardly surprising, taking into account that is was written by the same person who originally designed the use of the polemical bridges in the first place. One has to ask why interventions made on other parts of the road are considered to be perfectly safe yet, when it comes to arguments against demolishing the bridges, putting into place cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternatives, people are using the road safety ticket to justify their completion.

Some people may still remember that the original project which was commissioned, didn’t actually include any of the bridges at all, they were later added to the project for political reasons. The real debate here is about if planned changes on the road between Maó and Alaior are rational and proportional. Technicians have calculated that the flow of traffic will be 26 secs faster if the roundabouts are built below the road bridge rather than on the same level as the road. However, we have to balance those 26 seconds against the cost of impairing the beauty of the landscape and endangering archaeological settlements. If political regeneration is to be taken seriously then we should not be building memorials to oversized and over priced public works. Road safety here is not under question, everything else needs to be.

(This is a summary of the original article).