It will soon be 90 years that people have been crossing the Pancevac Bridge from one side of the Danube to the other. They can't do without him. It would be a good idea to reconstruct it before it collapses under them
People say that he who has not crossed over Pancevac bridge he doesn't know what danger is. The access ramps of the Pancevac Bridge are completely worn out, pieces of concrete are falling off them, and yet, reconstruction will not start this year even though it was announced, because the bridge on Ada Huja needs to be built first, which hasn't even started! According to some proposals, it should be demolished. There is also a citizen's initiative that calls for the immediate reconstruction of the bridge as a project of national importance, and which proposes the expansion of the bridge by one lane in both directions to relieve traffic, and the construction of a safe bicycle and pedestrian path.
Currently, in the year it celebrates its ninetieth birthday, Pančevac is between survival and disappearance!
The importance of a direct traffic connection that would connect the railway network Belgrade and the rest of Serbia with the Banat network, one of the most fertile parts of Europe, was noticed immediately after the Great War. Until the opening of the Pancevo bridge, people traveled by train from Pancevo to Belgrade via Senta and Subotica or Titel and Novi Sad, or via the Danube, but in winter only on those days when traffic was not stopped due to fog and ice. Therefore, the construction of the Pancevac bridge was of crucial importance for the state.
When considering the exact position of the bridge, several locations were considered, and one of them was downstream below Pancevo. The final decision that the bridge should be in the area of Belgrade was made by the Railway Construction Directorate. The route of the bridge separated from the Klanica station at Karaburma and turned left over the Danube, which at that point has a width of 1250 meters. The total length of the bridge is more than 1500 meters, making it one of the longest river bridges on the continent. Also interesting is the fact that in the 17th and 18th centuries there was a pontoon bridge across the Danube at the same place, which was of great importance during wars, especially for the army of Eugene of Savoy.
The construction works were carried out by the world-renowned company Siemens Bauunion GmbH Kommanditgesellschaft Berlin, with the cooperation of the company Dyckerhoff und Widmann Berlin, specialized in pneumatic foundations. The steel structure was provided and installed by a consortium of German firms operating under the abbreviated name of Pamont. The financing of the bridge was 30 percent at the expense of the Yugoslav state, and 70 percent of the funds at the expense of German war reparations. The final value of the works was increased by 25 percent compared to the original plan.
When the preparatory works began in May 1927, the neglected Danube bank in Karaburma near Belgrade came to life! A series of modern shacks were erected for housing and offices - a whole street about 300 meters long - served during the entire construction of the bridge. Machine shops, warehouses, a modern infirmary, bathrooms with cold and hot water and all other comforts were built. The temporarily erected buildings formed an entire settlement. A dock was also built for cargo ships to unload materials. Machines and various tools were transported by locomotives. Considering that the work on drying the terrain and building the stretcher bridge was risky, all employees were insured.
At the Pancevac Bridge construction site, nothing was undertaken before everything was foreseen and prepared, so that once the work had begun, it ran smoothly and without pauses. This was one of the first construction projects where the most modern means of modern technology were applied. Nothing was done primitively. About 350 workers worked on the construction site, which was a huge tangle of scaffolding. All the rough work was done by machines. Two large purpose-built power stations supplied the site with electricity to drive large pumps to compress the air in the caissons, there were concrete-making machines, cranes for loading and unloading materials and a whole host of other gadgets and gizmos.
In the first (and unfortunately the only phase of construction), the bridge was connected to the Belgrade station by a classic railway on the right bank of the Sava and Danube rivers. In the second phase, it was planned to build a tunnel under Terazi, which would connect the railway traffic over the bridge with the main railway station. The tunnel would enter underground near Dušanova and Francaška Streets, exit near the Savamal Primary School (now near the Faculty of Economics) and continue towards the main railway station.
The originally planned completion date was June 1930, but it was extended. Namely, already in March 1928, there was a sharp conflict in the Finance Committee of the National Assembly because the Minister of Transport, General Svetislav Tisa Milosavljević, entrusted the construction of the bridge to Siemens Bauunion without bidding, which was against the state accounting law. In the middle of the same year, the company Siemens Bauunion was not able to meet the workers and increase their wages. Dissatisfied workers decided to go on strike and all left their jobs. At that moment, 275 workers were engaged, among them a large number of Germans. Then, due to the unusually cold winter of 1928/1929. and the frozen Danube, and then large floods, the steel structure could not be assembled, so the works were only continued in April 1929. During the winter of 1929/1930. again there was a stoppage in the works, this time due to the interruption of regular payment of bills. They continued at the beginning of 1930.
At that time, in 1933, the Zemun Bridge (King Alexander Bridge) was also built. At that moment, the steel structure of the Pancevac bridge was finished, but the access roads were not, and we had to wait another two years for them because the embankment of the Pancevac ridge, which was planned as a defense against the often swollen Danube, was not completed. In contrast, the access roads to the Zemun Bridge were completed a year before the bridge was put into traffic. It is also interesting that the Pančevački bridge was made suitable for pedestrian and road traffic a year before the first train crossed it. Railway traffic was opened only after all the planned deadlines had been exceeded, by more than five years.
The ceremonial opening of the bridge and the departure of the first train took place on November 10, 1935. The people started to gather on the shore from early in the morning in anticipation of important personalities, they admired the appearance of the seven steel arches that hung over the bridge like a rainbow. Shortly before 11:XNUMX a.m. Prince Viceroy Pavle Karađorđević arrived accompanied by General Čolak Antić and two other officers. The assembled world greeted him tumultuously, and military music intoned the national anthem. After inspecting the company of honor, Prince Pavle greeted the representative of the Minister of Transport, Šefkija Behmen, and the President of the Municipality of Belgrade, Vlado Ilić. The church rite of consecration of the bridge was performed by Patriarch Varnava. Prince Pavle ceremonially opened the King Peter II Bridge, which was soon named - Pančevac, by symbolically cutting the tricolor ribbon strung across the entire length of the bridge.
The train left over the new bridge to Pancevo at 11.40:XNUMX a.m. He was sent off by the tumultuous cheers of the assembled world. The locomotive was moving at a slow speed. All along the track there was a crowd of people throwing flowers and cheering the guests. One kilometer away from the bridge, peasants from Ovča and Borča began to appear, dressed festively, as if they were welcoming their dearest guest. Several peasants with better cars followed the train at full gallop all the way to Ovča!
Soon, a regular bus line was introduced, which vicky passengers called "from monument to monument" considering that their initial stops were in Belgrade near the monument to Prince Mihail, and in Pancevo near the monument to King Peter. Passing through Pančevački Rita, the bus is regular, like a scene from a movie Who's singing there took a break in the town of Krnjača, where right next to the bridge, a series of buildings and shacks have been converted into taverns. It was a kind of duty-free zone, because the first excise station was right on the bridge, so drinks were five times cheaper than in the city itself. The same situation was with food. That's why families came here every day, especially on weekends, for picnics and lunch.
During its turbulent life, the Pancevac bridge experienced various ups and downs, it was mined, reconstructed, bombed, demolished, rebuilt. It still represents a key link between Belgrade and Banat, and is used by more than 100.000 citizens every day. Despite this, the bridge has been deteriorating for years, without systematic investment, endangering safety and hindering the mobility of one of the most important routes in the country.
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