An entire community risks their lives every day just to avoid living in isolation. It’s about 300 villagers from Botoșani county who, in order to get to work, school or wherever they need to go, have to cross a bridge that can collapse at any moment.
The bridge is effectively destroyed PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
Mateieni village is located in Dimăcheni commune, Botoșani county, in the extreme north of Romania. The village is inhabited by 300 souls, including many young people and children. The rural landscapes are idyllic, but the life of the people of Mateieni is hard. And that’s because a mundane trip to school, work, paying bills or for any administrative need is a real ordeal. In order to get out of the village and not live in the most terrible isolation, the locals have to cross, daily, a bridge that is about to collapse and for which the Prefecture has recommended the closure of traffic. The authorities confess that the situation of the bridge has always been complicated, caught in the absurdity of the Romanian bureaucracy. Only a few months ago, his administrative situation was clarified. All this time, with luck, minibuses with children at school, milk tankers and people at work pass over the bridge.
The horror bridge, rotten and holed
From the Botoșani municipality, Mateieni can be reached after a road of approximately 30 kilometers. The road is paved so it doesn’t take more than 30 minutes by car. The entrance to the village is from the main road that runs through the neighboring commune, Corlăteni. You need to be very careful because it is a narrow path, to the left, lost in the weeds. About 100 meters from the turn to the left, on the cobbled country road, you reach a bridge which is actually the entrance gate to the Mateieni hamlet. The bridge crosses a ravine more than five meters deep, at the bottom of which a stream of water flows. But this bridge is a real public hazard.
The bridge is crossed daily by locals PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
It is rather a wooden deck about three to four meters wide, about seven decades old. What shocks, however, is its state of decay. The wooden beams that form the gable of the bridge are effectively rotten, with collapsed portions or holes showing the menacing bottom of the ravine. Only the metal straps keep the bridge from disintegrating. It creaks and actually wobbles every time a car passes. About a decade ago, a tractor crashed and a man died after a bridge railing broke. A committee meeting at the Prefecture last year recommended the immediate closure of the bridge for traffic.
“There we are playing with death. Minibuses full of children pass every day”
However, the bridge could not be closed because it is the only way for local residents to access the village. If a barrier had been put in place, people would have been effectively isolated. Especially for those who live from raising dairy cows, if the collection tank from the processors does not reach the village, it is a real disaster. In addition, the children from Mateieni study at the school in the center of the commune and are taken there by minibus. On foot it should cover more than 7 kilometers. “If we blocked access to the bridge, people would break the barrier”says the mayor of the Dimăcheni commune, Marinel Moruz. Having no choice, the locals make a big cross and cross the bridge. Some several times a day, as they need. “There we play with death. Minibuses full of children pass by every day. It’s very, very dangerous, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Children have to go to school, people have to get to work, plus supplies”says a villager from Mateieni. Others confess that the bridge is a constant stress.
The bridge is the only easy access to Mateieni PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
“I wake up thinking that I have to cross the bridge. Gentlemen are moving under the car. But what to do, if I have to go to work, bring another one. Everyone passes with fear. But the milk collection machine has to arrive, because there are people who make a living from it. That’s it, praying to God and that’s it”, confesses another Botošan resident from Mateieni. People are worried that if a fire engine or an ambulance is needed things could get complicated. There is another kind of bypass road, but in bad condition and becomes impassable especially when the weather is bad. The only easy connection of the hamlet to the world is only the road with the bridge of horror. “When the child goes to school, I am stressed. I have no peace. When I see him in the yard and know that he doesn’t cross that bridge anymore, I calm down”confesses a villager.
A story made in Romania
Lolcanics have been living in fear for about a decade, since the bridge has deteriorated substantially. They would have liked to fix it themselves, but the law won’t let them. Besides, no one knew who this bridge actually belonged to. He was not listed either in Corlăteni or Dimăcheni commune. It was not registered or registered in the land register. It was nobody’s bridge. And so he remained without anyone caring. Only in the last three years has the bridge come to the attention of local authorities. Initially, the higher administrative structures were announced, i.e. the County Council and the Prefecture. At that level the assembled commission was content to recommend the closure of the bridge, although it was taking a path of acees of an entire community.
Finally, the local authorities of Dimăcheni managed to register the bridge and officially pass it on the territory of the commune. Now, the city councilors requested funds through CNI for the demolition of the old bridge and the construction of a new one instead. “The situation of the Mateieni bridge is terrible. It is in an alarming state of erosion. We are now trying to do it through a project, through CNI. His situation was uncertain until a few months ago. It was not registered and it was not known who the owner was. In the meantime, we solved this problem, we have a land deed for the Dimăcheni commune, we succeeded and we also did a feasibility study. Maybe we’re going into an emergency regime.”says mayor Marinel Moruz
