Žeželj Bridge

Žeželj Bridge (Жежељев мост) is a tied-arch bridge on the Danube river in Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia. The bridge was originally built in 1961, and was destroyed during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The newly constructed bridge was opened in 2018.

Name
The name Žeželj Bridge came from the bridge's designer and engineer, Branko Žeželj. Officially the old bridge was also named Brotherhood and Unity Bridge (Mост братства и јединства).

The new bridge is officially called Railway–Road Bridge across the Danube (Железничко-друмски мост преко Дунава). However, most citizens refer to it as New Žeželj Bridge, despite it not being designed by Branko Žeželj or from his original bridge plans, being a visually inspired by the old bridge.

Location
Both new and old Žeželj Bridge were constructed at the end of Venizelosova street from the side of Novi Sad, connecting to Reljkovićeva street at Petrovaradin. Boško Perošević Bridge was right next to the new bridge upstream prior to its dismantle.

Old Žeželj Bridge
The original Žeželj Bridge (377 meters long) was a through arch bridge built between 1957 and 1961. It was designed by the prominent Yugoslavian civil engineer Branko Žeželj and constructed by Mostogradnja. It connected the city area of Novi Sad and Petrovaradin. During its existence, it served as part of an international railway line and as a transit road through Novi Sad.

During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the bridge was bombed 12 times. On 23 April 1999, it was finally destroyed, cutting railway transport between Belgrade and Subotica, i.e. Serbia and Hungary. During the NATO bombing, all three large bridges on Danube river in Novi Sad (Žeželj Bridge, Varadin Bridge and Liberty Bridge) were completely destroyed.

New Žeželj Bridge
In 2000, a temporary Road–Railway Bridge was constructed near the Žeželj Bridge to serve as a replacement of Žeželj Bridge until the new one was constructed. Over the years, the construction of the new Žeželj Bridge was postponed several times.

In April 2012, the construction works for the new bridge in the same place officially started. The main designer of the new bridge was Aleksandar Bojović, while the contractor was an international consortium, JV Azvi - Taddei – Horta Coslada. The new bridge is visually similar to the destroyed bridge, except that the arches are made from steel and not prestressed concrete. The bridge consists of two arches, the larger one being 219 m long and 42 m high and the smaller one 177 m long and 34 m high.

In October 2017, the arches of Žeželj Bridge were connected after five years of construction and eighteen years after the previous bridge was destroyed. As of October 2017, the construction works cost was 51.71 million euros. In April 2018, the bridge was completed and regular rail transport established. The vehicle transit was established on 1 September 2018.