A bridge, first of all

Since the end of April, construction has been progressing on the foundations for the planned new city library, which will extend across the Nidda River. At a construction site open house, visitors have now been able learn more about it.

“People are always complaining about something” was an outburst from a woman in the crowd. Rather than listening to verbose complaints from the group of visitors – e.g. about the narrow passage between the construction fence and the Kurhaus, through which cyclists categorically refused to step down off their bicycles and push, or that speakers were not using a megaphone – the lady who spoke up out of the crowd finally wanted to learn more about the construction site.

At the end of April, excavators along both banks of the Nidda River, at the level of the former central parking facility, began opening up gaping wounds in the landscape. That is where the foundations for the new city library will be laid down across the river. The city marketing department had staged an invitation to a construction site tour on Saturday. Roughly 60 people showed up, as recommended, with sturdy shoes.

At the initial informational event, they were already able to catch a glimpse into the underground level of the controversial library bridge, which will be named “Mediathek”. The rooms and the elevator shaft can be seen, along with the three concrete columns roughly 1.5 meters thick on each river bank, on which the several hundred ton construction of steel, glass and concrete will rest.

But before the residents of Bad Vilbel quench their thirst for knowledge there, the library building has the mundane function as a construction site access road. Klaus Rotter from the municipal utility, the building’s owner, explained this was relieving traffic on Frankfurter Strasse during the construction period at Neue Mitte (new city center).