Construction Controversy

The Dresden city council chose a new, simpler version of the bridge late Tuesday night. It was developed by a Stuttgart engineering and architecture firm and represents a desperate bid to end a legal battle that has gone to Germany's highest court.

In 2004, UNESCO declared a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) long stretch of riverside landscape in Dresden a world cultural heritage site. At the time, the city celebrated that distinction -- not realizing that it would create a conflict with the plans, drawn up in 1996, to build a bridge to help commuters get across the Elbe.

In 2005, citizens of Dresden decided by referendum that they wanted the construction project. The following year, UNESCO classified Dresden's waterfront as endangered and threatened to strip the city of its heritage site status if it changed the river landscape.

Simple and Light-Footed

Advocates of the bridge insist that the 160 million-euro ($210 million) project must go ahead. The city government has repeatedly challenged those demands, but a series of courts -- including, mostly recently, Germany's Constitutional Court -- have ruled that Dresden must honor both the results of the referendum and existing contracts for building work.

As a result, the city was forced to start constructing access roads, before the future of the bridge was definitively settled.

Government officials hope that the new design will not only connect the two sides of the Elbe but bridge the gap between historic preservation concerns and economic and transportation interests.

The jury that chose the revised design from six proposals praised it as being "simple and light-footed."

Now Dresden will have to wait and see whether bridge advocates accept the compromise. They are also hoping for a positive reaction when the UNESCO committee responsible for endangered world heritage sites meets from June 23 to July 2.