- Grand opening: July 21, 2025, Alikianos, Municipality of Platanias;
- New Keriti Bridge replaces the historic stone relic that collapsed in February 2019.
- Construction managed by the Ministry of Infrastructure.
- Total study funding: €700,000; final construction price: €6,670,000;
- Key political players showed up for photos, speeches, and, of course, credit;
- Massive support from the local government, the region, and landowners who kindly gave away parts of their property;
- Result: One fully functioning bridge, about 85 meters long, connecting the Kytherian and Selino provinces (and, one would hope, residents to reality);
- Promises for “immediate” restoration of the historic stone bridge are still pending, despite €8,000,000 pledged back in 2019.
Tourists arriving in western Crete looking for ruins will now find the Keriti Bridge, not exactly ancient, but almost as much of a monument to stubborn tradition and modern chaos. The spectacle began, as all grand public works do, with a disaster—a once-iconic stone crossing swept away one February night in 2019.
What followed was a parade. Not of engineers, but officials, each eager to have their name inscribed on the monument’s plaque. The Ministry of Infrastructure immediately took charge—possibly because someone else pawned the job off first. The people of Platanias watched with applause or skepticism from the sidelines, depending on whether their property rights were at stake.
The list of contributors is as long as the bridge itself:
- Ministry of Infrastructure (overseeing, micromanaging, presumably double-parking)
- Greek Parliament
- Platanias Municipal authorities
- Region of Crete
- A cast of local institutions and the ever-obliging crowd
- Landowners (unsung heroes), who gave up plots for surveys, blueprints, and eventually the bridge and its shiny new roads
How to Waste a Perfectly Good Crisis
The bridge’s story wouldn’t be complete without a masterclass in funding. After some very dramatic weather crushed the old bridge, everyone agreed: something modern, safe, and wide enough for more than sheep was needed. It only took until May 2019 to wrangle the €700,000 for studies. By 2022, things escalated quickly—big talk, official memos, and, finally, the green light for €6,670,000 of “real” money to haul steel, pour concrete, and pay consultants to explain why it all took so long.
A timeline as suspenseful as any Greek tragedy:
- Original collapse: February 2019
- Feasibility and design studies approved: May 2019
- Study completed and signed off: August 2022
- Big budget released: sometime after
- Contract for construction signed: September 23, 2022
- Crews began work in February 2023
- Grand opening: July 21, 2025
Never before has a bridge built so quickly responded so slowly to community needs (irony not lost on the farmers whose tractors had to detour for years).
The ceremony’s highlight, apart from the bridge itself, involved speeches as solid as the foundations upon which it stood. The mayor, Giannis Malandrakis, took his moment to toast everyone from engineers to the landowners who never expected to see their olive groves turned into on-ramps. He managed a bow to “those who contributed to making this project a breath of fresh air” for the region.
He also asked, with the flair of a man who’s tired of asking, for the Minister’s “immediate commitment to restore the historic bridge, as the initial amount of €8 million earmarked back in May 2019 still hasn’t made its way out of the official pipelines.”
There were nods from other dignitaries present, so the odds are good for… more speeches.
- Mayor Giannis Malandrakis: “Ευχαριστώ όλους όσοι συνέβαλαν στην υλοποίηση ενός έργου πνοής για την περιοχή.” – “I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the realisation of a work of great importance for the region.”
- On the historic bridge: He requested “τη δέσμευση του Υπουργού για την άμεση αναστήλωση της Ιστορικής γέφυρας” – “the Minister’s commitment to the immediate restoration of the Historic Bridge.”
A multitude of onlookers attended the event. The Minister of Infrastructure, Christos Dimas, acknowledged the slow-motion urgency of the project. Deputy Minister Nikos Tachiaos, Secretary-General Dimitris Anagnopoulos, migration czars, MPs, regional bureaucrats, and every kind of dignitary short of a royal attended. One imagines the souvenir photos will outlive even the new concrete.
The New Keriti Bridge
What does the new crossing offer? Eighty-five meters of optimism and reinforced steel, standing as proof that in Crete, miracles happen—albeit with paperwork, delays, and the lingering ghosts of historic stones. It now officially ties together two regions, all while the future of the old bridge remains a tantalizing promise.
Visitors to Alikianos can now traverse the Keriti Bridge and marvel at its efficiency—a tribute not to ancient Greece’s swift builders, but to bureaucrats with a sense of occasion. Snap a photo. Savor the irony. Above all, don’t ask how long the next repair will take. You might be waiting for the answer longer than the farmers waited for a bridge.
