Road closed after barge rams canal bridge in thick fog

The barge was damaged in the collision. Photo: ANP/HH/Persbureau Meter
The barge was damaged in the collision. Photo: ANP/HH/Persbureau Meter

A canal bridge in Friesland has been closed to traffic after being struck by a German barge.

Parts of the vessel broke off and fell into the water when the vessel rammed the bridge in Stroobos, a village on the border with Groningen, at around 8.20pm on Tuesday.

Nobody was injured, but the canal and the bridge over the Prinses Margrietkanaal were both closed to traffic while divers and a crane removed the wreckage from the water.

‘The crew and the traffic controllers had quite a shock,’ a spokesman for highways agency Rijkswaterstaat told RTV Noord.

The waterway reopened on Wednesday morning, but the road remains closed pending an inspection. The barge remains moored a few hundred metres from the bridge.

Police are investigating the cause of the collision, which they said happened while heavy fog hung over the canal.

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