Village fountain in Erlinsbach SO has to make way for the Bern-Lviv streetcar line
Published: Thursday, Oct 3rd 2024, 04:50
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The transportation of the first of eleven decommissioned streetcars from Bern to the Ukraine was delayed in Erlinsbach SO on Tuesday. The historic village fountain on the edge of the village square remains open for the passage of another ten special transports.
The Bernmobil public transport company is donating eleven "Vevey" streetcars to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine. The first transport in a Polish truck went through the cantons of Solothurn and Aargau to the German border in Rheinfelden on Tuesday.
There was a delay in the village center of Erlinsbach SO because the village fountain was in the way, as first reported by regional broadcaster TeleM1. In order to allow the 40-metre-long special transport to pass, the six-tonne basin of the village fountain was lifted to the side with a crane in consultation with the municipal authorities.
"The fountain will remain on the edge of the village square until around the end of January," said Beat Baumann, head of administration in Erlinsbach SO, when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. The fountain was last removed in 2016 for a long-term planned, 60-metre-long exceptional transport.
Before it was reinstalled at the traffic circle on the village square, the fountain was prepared so that it could be removed with a crane if necessary, as Baumann said. Like the townscape of Erlinsbach SO, the village fountain is also a listed building.
The "Vevey" streetcars from Bern, together with streetcars from Zurich, are to be used in Ukraine for another ten to twelve years, according to reports. The transport to the war-torn country is organized and financed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).
For the municipality of Erlinsbach SO, Baumann said, it was acceptable that the village fountain would have to make way temporarily. It was more important that the special transports could pass unhindered and that there were no major traffic obstructions.
©Keystone/SDA
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