Workers attempt to complete Juliana Bridge after crane collapse

Construction workers are attempting to place a new deck on the Koninging Juliana Bridge in Alphen aan den Rijn on Wednesday. This is the second attempt to do so. The first attempt to place a new deck on the bridge ended in disaster. The two construction cranes used to put the deck in place collapsed onto surrounding buildings. No one was injured, but the damage was enormous. The new bridge part was delivered to Alphen on Tuesday. Work started at around 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. According to Omroep West, the placement is expected to take all day. If all goes well, the bridge will be put in use in June. Alderman Tseard Hoekstra is confident that the placement will go well this time. "It is happening in a different way than last time. We had the approach calculated and checked by TU Delft", he said to the broadcaster. "We are definitively confident." Nevertheless, people living and working in the surrounding homes and businesses were told to leave the area. A number of streets were also closed off.