The Southern Bridge ( lv, Dienvidu tilts) is an extradosed bridge built across the Daugava River in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, the capital of

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. The bridge was constructed between 2004 and 2008, and was opened on November 17, 2008. Construction of the access roads lasted until 2013. Because of the bridge's huge cost it also become colloquially known as The Golden Bridge (''Zelta tilts'').

Construction costs

The government control commission in a report for January 2002 to September 2008 showed that, during that period, costs increased fivefold – from a planned 108.84 million

lats Lats or LATS may refer to: * Latissimus dorsi muscle * Latvian lats, former currency of Latvia * Latin American Test Symposium of test and fault tolerance technologists * Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, a UK scheme to reduce biodegradable waste ...

(154.87 million

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

) to 570.14 million lats (811.24 million €). In 2011 Riga City Council terminated the agreement with Southern Bridge third round builders due to lack of funds. In early 2012 Riga City Council signed agreement with the new constructors to carry out final works of third stage of the Southern bridge and borrowed an additional seven million euros for funding. In 2009 The Economy Police launched a criminal case on suspected violations in construction of the bridge. State Audit Office concluded that the Riga City Council had squandered 27 million lats in the construction. In 2013 the students of

Stockholm School of Economics in Riga The Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (''SSE Riga'' or lv, Rīgas Ekonomikas augstskola) is a business school in Riga, Latvia. It is a subsidiary of the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). The school was founded in 1994 by the Stockholm Sc ...

calculated that the same bridge could've been built for a budget two times smaller.

References

Extradosed bridges Extradosed bridges in Latvia Bridges in Riga Crossings of the Daugava River Cable-stayed bridges in Latvia {{Latvia-bridge-struct-stub